A regional daily has launched a fresh bid to bring a giant display of poppies to its patch.
The Sentinel, Stoke, is calling for the display, which was originally put in place at the Tower of London, to be brought to Stoke-on-Trent as part of a four-year tour of the UK.
The city was snubbed by organisers 14-18 Now after an initial list of venues was announced in June.
More than half the ceramic flowers used in the Tower of London display, pictured below, were made on The Sentinel’s patch.
The initial display at the Tower featured 800,000 poppies and ran from 5 August 2014, marking the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War, to 11 November, marking Armistice Day.
Hundreds have so far signed The Sentinel’s petition urging a rethink, with newsagents across Stoke urging customers to sign up.
Editor-in-Chief Martin Tideswell said: “As Stoke-on-Trent continues to battle to bring the Tower of London ceramic poppies back to the city where so many of them were made, it’s vital that we continue to demonstrate local passion and appetite.
“I know our readers will support us with this campaign through newsagents – just as they have in the past with petitions for a new hospital or to save the name of the Staffordshire Regiment.”
Jenny Waldman, director of 14-18 Now, told The Sentinel: “We are particularly aware and mindful of Stoke-on-Trent’s very crucial role in creating the poppies and we’re committed to bringing the poppies to the area.
“We are very impressed by the campaign. We are again offering to meet with the city council and partners to discuss the way forward.”
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Something wrong here. Weren’t the ceramic poppies sold off to individuals at the end of the exhibition in order to raise funds for the Poppy Appeal?
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From the BBC… Wave and the Weeping Window, which together have more than 10,000 ceramic poppies, were bought for the nation last year by the charities Backstage Trust and the Clore Duffield Foundation.
As to the Sentinel’s claim of Stoke being ‘snubbed’, Stoke has every chance of hosting the poppy display in 2017 and 2018, but if their bid for the first year failed or, more likely, was never made, surely the paper should be asking the local authority why, rather than blaming the organisers of the display.
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