Garden of Remembrance opened ahead of parade through Grantham for Remembrance Sunday with poppy cascades added outside Guildhall

A garden of remembrance has opened ahead of the annual parade for Remembrance Day, with poppy cascades installed in Grantham town centre.

The Garden of Remembrance was opened in St Peter’s Hill yesterday (Sunday) at 11.30am, with wreaths laid at the memorial there.

On Sunday (November 12), there will be a Remembrance Parade from St Peter’s Hill at 10.20am, which will march down High Street and Vine Street on its way to St Wulfram’s Church for the service at 11am.

The service is due to finish at 12pm and will be immediately followed by the laying of wreaths at the memorial in the grounds of the church. A salute will then take place on St Peter’s Hill when the parade returns shortly after this.

Councillor Mark Whittington, Mayor of Grantham said: “It was a very poignant and moving ceremony opening the Garden of Remembrance to honour all those who have paid the ultimate price over the generations fighting to protect the freedoms that all of us enjoy today.

“Their selfless sacrifice will be forever remembered. I was honoured to lay a wreath of behalf of the people of Grantham. May they all rest in peace.”

Scarlet poppy cascades have been installed on Grantham’s Guildhall Arts Centre for the town’s Remembrance commemorations.

Grantham Arts was commissioned by South Kesteven District Council to run workshops and engage art and design students from Grantham College to create military silhouettes.

Creative workshops attracted more than 100 volunteers to make 2,000 poppies and attach them to military camouflage netting for the cascades, including a session with St Anne’s Cubs and Scouts.

Students researched iconic figures from wartime history, resulting in four decorated silhouettes of a WW2 paratrooper, a WW1 Tommy soldier, a Naval Wren and a Land Girl standing by the poppies. At night they are being highlighted for maximum effect using red-uplighters.

The installation work drew enthusiastic responses from passers-by, and the helping hand of a ladder from Shaun Turner of Kesteven Decorating Services.

Student Rebekah Tambling who helped to design and decorate the WW1 soldier figure, said: “It’s been a great project to work on, particularly as I am from a military family. It means a lot to me”.

Anne Marie Kerr of Grantham Arts said. “Civic pride is really important to a town, and when you engage the local community in projects like this people really do start to feel that pride.

“We were delighted to work with the council to produce this installation.”

The installation will remain in place throughout Remembrance Week. During this week, there will also be a civilian service at Grantham Cemetery on Wednesday at 11am.

On Saturday (November 11), a minute’s silence will be held at St Peter’s Hill at 11am. The Garden of Remembrance will close at 3pm the following day.