Albrighton village post boxes adorned with Remembrance motifs made by craft group
Hundreds of knitted poppies have appeared on top of post boxes in a Shropshire village thanks to a crafty group of knitters.
Albrighton Craft Group have been worked hard over the past few weeks to create the knitted poppy post box toppers to mark Remembrance.
The group had a dozen or so members working day and night to knit and crochet the poppies which have decorated all five post boxes in Albrighton.
Jan Gold, from the group, said they had counted and one topper had more than 80 poppies on it and they couldn't believe how many they had made.
The group wanted it to be a surprise for the village when they were installed last Sunday.
"Originally we had this planned for last year but then Covid came along," Jan explained. "We put a stop to it then this year because we thought it would never happen, but then we thought we'd just go for it.
"In around August we started to make the covers for the post boxes. I don't think we realised how big the tops would be because you have to do enough so they go underneath and can tie round. So we ended up doing a few practice ones and then the last two weeks have just been crazy.
"The ladies, bless them, kept making poppies thinking they had made enough – and I had to say no we still need more! On one of them we counted there were more than 80 poppies."
All five post boxes have been covered by the knitted toppers – with the group members often coming out during the night so no-one would see their creations until they were finished.
"We put them out on Sunday just gone and we had even been coming out at 11pm at night to try them on the post boxes when no-one would be around – we wanted it to be a surprise really," Jan said.
"Even last Thursday we were all sat making poppies, then they would hand them over to be sewn to the topper. It has been so lovely though the feedback from everybody saying how lovely they look.
"On top of each one we have also put a bee – just to symbolise 'bee happy' and what we all went through over the past year.
"It's only really the past four weeks we have started to meet up inside again, as over the summer we were having meetings in people's gardens. We also have a Whatsapp group which keeps us going."
