Sculptor Robin Blackford has created a Poppy Day Centenary installation outside his home in All Cannings, inspired by the famous Tower Of London display which marked the 100-year anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War.

But whereas the 2014 installation at the Tower was formed of ceramic poppies, Mr Blackford, 75, has made his memorial display for Remembrance Sunday out of the bottoms of 200 plastic bottles.

It took him more than two months to cut up the bottles and paint each one of them poppy red.

“I got the idea from those images of all of the poppies cascading down at the Tower,” he said. “But it was Millie, my seven-year-old granddaughter, who had the idea of recycling plastic bottles. She said that I could cut them off to make the flowers because the bottoms are so evenly marked they could be turned into poppies.

“I made the display during lockdown, it took around two and a half months to complete and we needed a lot of bottles. We drink a lot of water anyway but thankfully family and friends helped out with a supply.”

The display, on a bank opposite the village green, has drawn the admiration of scores of residents who have keenly photographed Mr Blackford’s work. “I just did it as something for people to look at and as this year is the 100th anniversary of the Poppy Appeal. The poppy is my favourite flower anyway,” he said.

In 2014 the Tower of London marked the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War with the commemorative art installation Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red, which saw the moat filled with thousands of ceramic poppies.

Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red marked one hundred years since the first full day of Britain’s involvement in WW1. It was created by artists Paul Cummins and Tom Piper, and their 888,246 ceramic poppies progressively filled the Tower’s famous moat between July and November 2014. Each poppy represented a British military fatality during the war. More than 21,000 people volunteered to install the poppies and five million people from around the world travelled to see it. All of the poppies that made up the installation were sold, raising £9.5 million for six Service charities.