A cascade of 5,000 poppies flowing from the bell tower of Holy Rood Church in Wool to commemorate Remembrance Day has attracted visitors from across Dorset.
Hundreds of Purbeck residents have been knitting and crocheting woollen poppies for the Armistice installation since Wool volunteer group the Guerrilla Gardeners put out a plea.
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Wool’s Guerrilla Gardeners, from left, are Sue Bartlett, Sue Burroughs, Rosemarie Eastham and Mandy Pyne
More battlefield than beautiful
The flowers, which have been arriving at Holy Rood Church in huge numbers for months, many from anonymous knitters, have now been made into an awe inspiring artwork which pays tribute to those who lost their lives in wars since 1918.
It will remain in place at the historic Norman church until Thursday 13th November 2025, helping to raise funds for the Royal British Legion, Help For Heroes and the Army Benevolent Fund.
The ambitious project began with a donation of an authentic army camouflage cargo net, which was likely used to conceal tanks during military exercises in the desert.
When it first arrived in Wool from an army family in nearby Bovington, it was still caked with mud, twigs, and leaves, looking more battlefield than beautiful, and seemingly too big to use.
But members of the Guerrilla Gardeners, a group known for making the village beautiful by planting bulbs, trees and flowers, thought it could be transformed into a sweeping cascade of poppies, draping down the church tower in time for Remembrance Day.
GUERRILLA GARDENERS
The Remembrance poppy cascade has attracted visitors from across Dorset
A vision of a poppy cascade
Organiser Sue Burroughs said:
“It was incredible, we had people of all ages joining in. Some had never crocheted before, but they wanted to contribute and it quickly became more than a craft project, it was a real act of remembrance.
“The camouflage net sat in a bag for about a year because it was so big and dirty and we couldn’t see how to use it – but then I had a vision of a poppy cascade hanging from the highest point in the village.
“That is the Holy Rood Church tower, which is more than 13 metres tall, or the equivalent of three double decker buses on top of each other!
“The cargo net was long enough to use, but was too huge to fit in any one’s washing machine, so we cut it into three pieces and we all took a bit home.”
GUERRILLA GARDENERS
The 18 metre tank camouflage net was a gift from a Bovington Army family
“We know a mountaineer”
Sue added:
“Then we had a question mark over how to rejoin it and hang it from the tower, as we didn’t know at first that the parapets on the tower aren’t load-bearing.
“The only place strong enough to secure a heavy load was the bell frame, so the rope had to be attached there, but it was a real puzzle to figure out how to hoist something that size safely up the outside of the tower.
“Fortunately, we know someone who is an experienced mountaineer, who has just come back from the Himalayas and knows all about carabiners and ropes – in fact, he abseiled the church tower many years ago.
“You reach the tower by a very narrow and steep spiral staircase, the door at the top is very small and the floor at the top of the tower is shallow – we were on our knees for safety and it was very scary, so we decided to hoist from the outside, upwards.”
Richard Bartlett, Vicar of Holy Rood Church, was delighted by the response to Wool’s knitted poppy appeal
Flowers flooded in to the church
Knitted and crocheted poppies came flooding into the church following an appeal in the West Purbeck Benefice magazine and on social media, in all shades of red along with a few purple flowers to signify the animals which died in war.
The Guerilla Gardeners also went to East Burton village hall once a month to teach people to crochet at coffee mornings, and volunteers have been sewing completed poppies to the camouflage net since early summer.
When the big day finally arrived, it took a team of volunteers, ropes, and precise coordination to lift the enormous cascade into place.
Since then, visitors from far and wide have been to see the installation, with many of them trying to spot the poppies they made for it.
Extra poppies which continue to arrive in Wool have been made into wreaths for inside the church
“We’ve never seen anything like it”
Sue Burroughs said:
“We did start to panic as we moved into autumn, wondering whether we could get it completed in time, but we did, and it is an amazing sight!
“Not only that, it has withstood the rain and gale force winds of Storm Benjamin and it has been a real draw in the village – it has been quite difficult to park near the church at times.
“There have been so many visitors, we have never seen anything like it before, and it has helped to get some publicity for our church, which is very welcome.
“We did wonder whether we should buy the wool and issue patterns for the poppies so that all the flowers were the same design and colour, but we are really glad we didn’t.
“All the different shades and sizes gives a huge variety in the cascade – there are probably a lot more than 5,000 included and we had some left over to make some wreaths for inside the church and some which we will use for the Christmas tree festival in December.”
Guerrilla Gardeners have also been brightening up other parts of Wool, including Braytown Triangle
Wool’s footbridge over the railway is also festooned with hand knitted and crocheted poppies
Hope to reuse the cascade in 2026
Guerrilla Gardeners were formed after Wool parish council was given the chance to buy a redundant telephone box for £1, in order to transform it into a blooming thing of beauty.
Group members took the glass windows out and planted it up with displays all year round, then went on to plant shrubs at the railway footbridge.
The plants and other projects by the gardeners are funded by huge book sales twice a year, with the latest being held from 10 am to 12 noon on Saturday 8th November 2025 in the D’Urberville Hall, Wool.
The Guerrilla Gardeners will store the cascade to reuse next year, and hope the display will inspire villagers to take part in other local projects and to keep the spirit of remembrance alive in Wool for years to come.
Wool’s Holy Rood Church dates back more than 800 years
Church dates from Norman times
Holy Rood Church itself dates from Norman times, when it probably consisted of just a nave before being rebuilt and extended in the 13th century, with a chancel and tower added around 1450.
Holy Rood’s history is intertwined with that of the Turberville family, whose vaults lie beneath the church’s south aisle and whose manor, Woolbridge, inspired Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles.
In the novel, Tess herself is laid fictionally to rest just across the river Frome in the ruins of Bindon Abbey. Elsewhere, Woolbridge Manor House has been identified as the novel’s Wellbridge House, where Tess and Angel Clare spent their doomed honeymoon.
A Remembrance Day service at Holy Rood Church will include a ceremony at its Commonwealth war graves
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