REMEMBRANCE Day 2018: Festival of Remembrance at Boston Stump

Last Sunday, a two-week Festival of Remembrance opened at St Botolph’s Church to mark the hundredth anniversary of the Armistice.

In its first two days alone, about 3,500 people visited to see the exhibitions or take part in the events and activities on offer until Sunday.

Arguably, the most striking element is the vast number of handmade poppies decorating the church.

About half of these stem from packets put together by the Lincolnshire Guild of Weavers, Spinners, and Dyers, which has overseen the display. These were funded by donations from local businesses and available to collect from the church (with a request for a donation to the Royal British Legion). The rest have come from the community using their own materials.

Helped by the church’s pull as a tourist attraction, poppies were received from across the UK, even abroad. One Boston woman knitted 88 of them – one for every year of her life – and planned to leave it there before she returned with another 100. Poignantly, poppies knitted by Cora and Chris Harley, meanwhile, feature buttons taken from their father’s First World War uniform.

In addition to the poppies, visitors can also find numerous exhibitions, seated silhouettes representing the war dead, even ‘1918’ spelt out with 1,918 candles, and more.

The Rev Alyson Buxton, team rector, said: “We believe that everyone is made in the image of God. This common humanity compels us to remember, consider and respect everyone.

“The whole purpose of this festival has been to provide the space for reflection to respect and honour of all the casualties of the First World War. We recognise that we can only live in freedom because of their sacrifice. We will remember them.”