The knitted floral displays taking over a town, one stitch at a time

Cascading from the derelict White Horse pub in Wem, the display of hundreds of knitted and crocheted flowers is hard to miss.

It is the culmination of months of work, after the idea was put forward all the way back in April by Wem Town Council. The aim was to have a floral display on the building for their Sweet Pea show in July.

The work began small, with a regular group of crafters meeting in the town library asking for help, said one of its members, Nan Staines.

"I turned up the next week and it was standing room only - people wanting to be involved," she remembered. "They were sat on the floors, they were sat on the tables, they were standing down the bookshelf, all wanting to learn more and wanting to contribute."

In the end, more than 50 people turned out to busy their hands.

"There were some who did it at home and just brought the flowers into the library, there were some who came week in, week out... there were all sorts of groups," said Staines.

Then the town entered the Heart of England in Bloom competition.

"So it expanded... it was the White Horse, it was the bins, it was the post box," she said.

"Then we did the poppy memorial - there's a lovely memorial bench just outside the library."

The final number of flowers made across all of the sites is hard to pinpoint.

"We did start counting in tens; when we hit the thousands we thought: 'This is getting a little bit a little bit much'," said Staines.

"There's over a thousand, easily.

"That's without the garlands; the weeds that are on the windows; the flowers that the SEN children have done... without counting the poppies.

"We took over a chest of drawers , then we took over a cupboard, and then we took over the council offices."

Staines said, when people look at the displays, she wanted them to feel pride, joy and happiness.

"Every bit of it has come from individual people who cared, and wanted to take part, that wanted to contribute - and loved it," she said.

Thanks to the weather, and the public's eagerness to see them, the displays remain up.

"You can do community things for show, you know, like the White Horse, like the poppies, but actually the community of Wem is much more than that," Staines said.

"It's the quiet phone call: 'Are you OK?'; the hand on the shoulder.

"That's what's embodied in those flowers and that's what's absolutely mind-blowing to think about."

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