The Shropshire WI have decorated Shrewsbury Abbey ready for remembrance day.
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00:00So we're here at the beautiful lovely Shrewsbury Abbey and looking even more beautiful it's that
00:07that time of year coming the poppy displays up. Hello there introduce yourselves guys.
00:13Hello I'm Steve Swindon and I look after the Abbey and on my left are two of our very hard
00:21working WI members who have masterminded the creation of the poppy display again for the third
00:29year. Each year they say it's going to be bigger and better next year and that's hard to believe
00:35but they always pull it off it's absolutely incredible this year. It really does go to
00:40full scale of the Abbey doesn't it it kind of goes in between the columns and that this year.
00:45It does it beautifies the Abbey but of course what it really does is make us remember people
00:52who sacrificed their lives not just in the world wars but since people who gave their lives and
00:58their time yeah for the country yeah and it's a very poignant reminder and it's beautifully done
01:06I would encourage anybody to come and just stand here and experience it. Very true and I'm giving
01:11time of their lives ladies so you represent Shropshire WI? We do. And it's Shropshire WI
01:20individual members that come together to put the display on? Individual members that send us
01:24the knitted or crocheted poppies yeah and then we've added to it with the paper ones.
01:29So where do you where do these get stored? You know who's the one with the big garage?
01:37I don't want our husbands to know where they are.
01:42Have you worked out how many poppies you have actually? Go on. Well no lots of people have
01:46asked us if we've counted them. The big ones we know there's 26. That's right it's 26 giant ones
01:53but we don't know how many there's more. I think well there's probably about 100 if not more of
01:58that these shorter ones yeah 150 yeah and and hundreds and hundreds of the knitted ones thousand
02:06probably of the knitted ones yeah. So how many people do you have on the ground here then putting
02:10the display together roughly? It's hard to say because there's so many people from lots of
02:15different sections yeah so we've been these knitted ones and crocheted ones have been arriving at the
02:21office for months and months yeah as soon as we've put out requests for them yeah um our members
02:26have just sent them in and boxes and boxes and then we've had a little groupers that have been
02:32sewing them on to the back end yeah and um and then we've had lots of little meetings haven't
02:37we to get it all together. But if anybody ever wants to volunteer we're glad to volunteer. Yeah
02:42always any extra help. What's your crocheting skills like Steve? More than non-existent. I will
02:47say actually um you know I said each year they've got that gives the WI girls bigger and bigger
02:54ideas and end of November last year when when the display came down they said um can we have
03:02poppies suspended between the columns next year and said but we need to know because we need to
03:08know because we need so many more poppies and we need to start now so these literally have been
03:14in preparation for a year and they do they can that there are they've got to be thousands I'm
03:19not going to count them. So when they said we want to take over the columns as well Steve were you
03:24were you a little bit well hang on let's just well we've always got to yeah we've got to bear in mind
03:30that we have particularly events here you know we have we're quite a big music venue and concert
03:36venue and uh and we we need lines of sight you know we don't want to speak to people in the
03:42actually you can't see so we have to bear various things in mind but uh it was all planned
03:48meticulously and and the results are absolutely stunning. Yeah it does look gorgeous and it's
03:54important to kind of we you know this abbey is beautiful we all know it but you we need people
03:59to be coming in don't we you know and it forms part of that kind of just bringing people in as
04:05well. Well we do you know it's here for people to come in and we get so many people who come in
04:11for the first time and um I've said this before many times but it's true and they say oh well I
04:18live in the town I've driven past every day for the past 20 or 30 years I've never been in wow I
04:24never knew how beautiful it was yeah so I'd encourage anybody to come in it's easy to get to
04:30it's easy to park there's no entry fee just come in and have a look. Well exactly and you know the
04:35outside of the building thankfully it doesn't change it's gorgeous I'm sure it takes a bit
04:40of upkeep but but inside you have got kind of a constant revolving um calendar haven't you
04:46of events and you know like you say concerts and stuff and this poppy display forms a very
04:52welcome part of that I'd say. It does well I head up all the events as well as doing a few other
04:56things and yeah I mean we are pretty jam-packed especially now to Christmas there's hardly a day
05:01when there's not something happening um so yeah it's got to be all planned into that but obviously
05:06remembrance is a very very important time and we like to keep the display up as long as possible
05:14before and after the 11th and I think we've managed it reasonably well this year we've got a
05:20couple of weeks pretty much yeah yeah well 14th yeah it's here till the 14th that includes the
05:2914th it actually comes down on the 15th so yeah you can come on the 14th and you will see everything
05:34still in place fantastic well just in case anybody's wondering yeah well done to all involved
05:41and well done to all the individual members of the Shropshire WI ladies fantastic again
05:46absolutely you know it's it's uh it's become almost an institution in itself
05:53and are they we do have a very very good working relationship with Shropshire WI not just for the
06:00poppy display but we host their open day in September of course yeah you have a carol service
06:08each December yeah every month you've got to speak
06:13well there's no that's why you look so happy I think everybody appreciates uh all the all the
06:20good that WI do both branches and collectively and individually there's so much good that goes on
06:28yeah and and what gets me more than anything is that they're always really gung-ho they want to do
06:33it they want to do it really well they devote so much time and skill and attention to everything
06:39and uh and as I said next time they just want to do it bigger and better
06:44hang on don't push him don't push him let him relax from this one first
06:51and it's always a little bit different but it it just it beautifies this place so
06:56do please come along and just spend a few quiet moments well really I mean if you kept if you
07:02rushed in I think you'd soon slow down and just yeah take in what all this means it can't fail
07:08to move you yeah it's it's incredible we're so grateful to um uh to Tina and Gilly but also well
07:17eat there must be a I don't know I don't know how many there must be a very great many individual
07:24knitters and crocheters and and and long-suffering partners
07:34but no it's it's it's wonderful so um yeah come and see for yourself that's the best we can
07:41suggest anybody does yeah thank you
07:45not even the beautiful work of Stephen leaf shop she's not
07:48sorry but no definitely you do need to come in and see I do recall that last year Steve you said
07:56after the shoot you said I think those are some of the best photos I've taken yeah yeah it does
08:01look at you can't go wrong you come in and it's just you'd struggle to do a bad picture really
08:06so well done that's that's because of the great work you've put in well done to all involved thank
08:10you folks