Thousands of knitted and crocheted poppies adorn spots in Ramsgate once again this year, thanks to the work of the Crafty Poppies group and some help from Ramsgate Town and Thanet district councils.
The Crafty Poppies group have place a display of thousands of poppies at St George’s Church gates, put up a 2050 poppy display next to the Sailor’s Church in the harbour and created 500 poppies for a fresh installation at the Madeira Walk waterfall.
Group member Maxine Morgan said: “RTC helped the crafty poppies with St George’s Church Gates and TDC helped with the new Poppies in the waterfall. I put the ones up at the Sailors Church. The TDC (staff) were so respectful of the poppies and the installation. They wanted to get it just right.”
There are also Crafty Poppy pins which can be bought from Dawn’s Café, Howling Sounds, the Tourist Information Centre at Custom House, Radford House, The Red Lion, Lovetts Ramsgate, Homefront café and Petticoat Lane Emporium.
Crafty Poppies was founded by resident Jo Hanchett and formed in 2017 with the aim of making the poppy display that year to remember those brave men and women who died in World War conflicts.
The first display was on the railings of Albion Place where a young boy had been killed in April 1942. This was just a few red Poppies. By August of that year the group began making Purple Poppies to commemorate the animals who had been killed during the wars.
In November 2018 Crafty Poppies were ready for their first major display and filled the railings around Destiny in Albion Gardens with over 1,000 red poppies. The displays are now created each year and often encompass thousands of poppies.
November 11 is Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of hostilities in the First World War at 11am in 1918, with Remembrance Sunday always the second Sunday in November.
Remembrance commemorates the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts.
Let’s hope no-one vandalises them this year, as they did previously in Ramsgetto.
Ramsgate. “Ramsgetto” is not a word to be used carelessly, considering what real .ghettos were.
A reminder of how you defended people vandalising Ramsgate poppy displays:
https://theisleofthanetnews.com/2025/08/22/anger-at-theft-from-ramsgates-albion-gardens-of-poppy-panels-and-wreaths-in-memory-of-service-animals-lost-in-war/
They all look absolutely awful.
So did the blood of our war heroes.
This piece is about poppy displays. It details, at great length, the heroic sacrifices given by the Crafty Poppies organization. It tells us of the 1000s of red and purple poppies, crafted by these poppy people, and draped over a substantial amount of Ramsgate’s civic architecture.
Only right at the end of the piece is any mention made of the significance of Armistice Day.
No mention is made of how much money the Crafty Poppy people have raised for the Royal British Legion. I would hope that 1000s of poppies at (for example) £1 a time would be a tidy sum.
Presumably you also condemn MMR’s support of those who vandalise such displays simply because “Perhaps some people don’t think that knitted and crochet objects blend well with the surroundings.”?
Andrew- I have neither supported nor criticized the people who stole the purple poppies in August.
Those words sound pretty supportive to me.
That’s fantastic and a great community spirit thank you I hope the Morons idiot vandalism yobs don’t take them maybe
A good idea to light up the displays
And security cameras too! People put a lot of work and dedication into these (I know a couple of the people who makes similar things in Birchington). Which is why MMR’s dismissive comment genuine annoyed me.