Giant poppy in meadows for Legion appeal

A STRIKING commemorative red poppy has been painted on the grass in Mill Meadows, Henley, to mark this year’s Poppy Appeal.

The poppy is about 20m wide by 30m tall and is best seen from the air. It has been positioned to represent an eight next to a zero, with the dates of the D-Day anniversary above it.

The outline was drawn by a pre-programmed robot and then filled in by hand using a knapsack sprayer.

Richard Pinches, the organiser of the Henley Poppy Appeal and chairman of the Henley branch of the Royal British Legion, designed the image.

Mr Pinches, 59, of York Road, said: “I was slightly limited in the design by the capabilities of the robots but I knew I wanted to pick up on the 80th anniversary of D-Day.

“It took three hours because the robot is quite slow and it took a while for the two men to paint it and they used a knapsack sprayer, which is something you use for weedkiller.”

Mr Pinches said that the paint used was similar to what is used to mark out sports pitches.

He said: “It’s semi-permanent and it will grow out. When the grass grows and it gets cut the image will slowly fade.”

The poppy was mapped out by GPS robots operated by Simon Hughes, of Origin Amenity Solutions.

He then helped to colour in the design was by Danny Perkins, of Groundtel.

Mr Pinches said that the emblem in the meadows had already sparked interest. He said: “I heard a father and child walk past it and the kid said ‘What’s that, Dad?’ and he explained it was to commemorate the war”, and that’s as I was talking about drone pictures. There are often points to commemorate and draw things from and obviously D-Day was a pivotal point at the end of the war. Next year we aim to commemorate VE day.”