Marple Street Poppies and 'Who Was I?' Campaign

The Marple Poppy Appeal was revitalised in 2017 by the arrival of new team leader Kevin Murray, and his ideas about how to raise the profile of the appeal and make commemorations more personal to our local community. That year the team arranged for forty-six large Street Poppies to be put on lampposts across locations in Marple, Marple Bridge and Compstall, which had the names of men listed on the Marple War Memorial who were killed in 1917, one hundred years earlier. The team raised the bar in 2018 by installing 198 street poppies to represent local men from Marple, Marple Bridge, Mellor, Compstall and High Lane who had lost their lives during the First World War. They also produced 'Who was I?' cards, designed to encourage local people to discover more about these named individuals, using the Timeline in Marple Memorial Park (see separate 'Mapping the Centenary' listing). The following year, the team went further in honouring all local men who had fallen - from the beginning of the First World War to the present day - in putting up 264 street poppies throughout Marple and District. Each Street Poppy carried an individual's name and date of death. Despite restrictions from the global Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the Marple Poppy Appeal Team created 'Walls of Remembrance' within Marple Memorial Park, Compstall, Mellor and Mill Brow, featuring the names of 267 local men. The Street Poppies were sponsored by local people and businesses as part of the wider Poppy Appeal. From 2017 to 2020 the Marple Team raised an incredible total of £68,515 for the Royal British Legion.