Poppies
 

On the A59 close to the Clitheroe/Barrow junction there are 2 roundabouts which are covered in red poppies. Delightful. I want to explore the possibilities of getting some poppies seen in Accrington. Who shall I speak to at HBC? Is there a head gardener?

Do you know who I should speak to at RVBC?

Re: Poppies
 

There is a mass of wild poppies growing along Blackburn Road where Holland Street and the petrol station used to be.

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Shhhhhhhh theres quite a few dodgy gets around yon.:D

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If anyone gets the chance of collecting some seeds when they become collectable, I would welcome them. I will try to get over then myself. I might find the half-crown I once lost there when I was on my paper round delivering Daily Despatches and Daily Heralds.

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I will PM you a contact at HBC to speak to.
Prospects have done a lot of work with poppies recently as well but the contact I PM you will be able to help you.

Poppies
 

For Bob Dob, here's a photo of the wild flowers growing along Blackburn Road. Lovely!

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Atarah - you're a poppy!!!! The Accrington Grammar School Old Boys wants to get poppies growing all over the town and borough. It will be a means of showing the links between Accrington and Flanders and I am hoping that when the centenary of the Pals being founded comes up, there'll be plenty of such visual reminders. Meanmwhile, all Accringtonians can take up the hobby of picking and planting poppy seeds. Get forking and trowelling.

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Your too late Dobbo, my daughter and her mates on Prospects, have already seen to that, they have spent the past month working on their projects at weekends.
Retlaw

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That piccy looks just like an Afgan/Pakistan Heroin farm. It couldn't be...could it?

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Doubt it, Tealeaf. They look like corn or field poppies, not the opium variety.

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I drove past all the A59 poppies on Sunday, they look glorious!!

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Re: Poppies
 

Interested in Prospect Poppy Project? Get in touch or become a volunteer with Prospects. 1st July 2011 will be 95th Anniversary of Battle of the Somme. Many poppies have already been sown or planted.

At 04.20am on July 1st 1916, the Accrington Pals were in the assembly trenches, ready and waiting for battle to commence. At 07.20am the Royal Engineers detonated the first of several mines laid under the German positions, at 07.30am the whistle blew, the artillery barrage lifted onto the 2nd line of German trenches and the Pals went forward across no mans land, only to be met by heavy machine gun fire from the Germans who had been pre warned by the explosion of the mines at 7-20 am. Within 20 minutes, over 600 of the 740 men, who took part in the attack, was either killed, wounded or missing. Some of the Accrington Pals are reported to have been in the German trenches. By the 5th July all those who were still able to walk or crawl, had made it back to the British front lines, several acts of heroism were rewarded for rescuing wounded comrades.

Prospects Poppy Project is taking the lead for Accrington Pals 100th anniversary in 2016.... so you lads and lassies have time to get involved!

Re: Poppies
 

apart from the Rememberance day thing , thought most gardeners thought of them as an intrusive weed :confused: :confused:

Re: Poppies
 

I'm a little confused here. Post #7 mentions the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Pals. And in your post, you mention the "100th anniversary in 1916". This would be the anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, not the anniversary of the "founding" of the Pals in 1914.:confused: I'm not trying to be picky, just looking for clarification.:) Oh, and expect a response from Retlaw concerning the number of casualties;):D

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I also think it would be a good idea if July 1 were designated a civic holiday in Hyndburn. As I have mentioned before, in the great province of Newfoundland and Labrador, July 1 is celebrated as Memorial Day. This is to honor the bravery and sacrifice of the men of the Newfoundland Regiment on July 1, 1916 at Beaumont Hamel, close to Serre where the Pals went into action. The Pals deserve the same recognition.

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Just before Bill Turner died, he asked me to go through my files, and let him know the true figures. This I did town by town, including pictures and biographies of the men,
Just as I was getting ready to take it to the hospital, his daughter rang to say Bill had died.
I put it away, and not looked at it since.
One of the reasons I have never quoted the true figures, is because of the lurkers, on here, who would just love to know, but rely on other people doing the work.
The figure is a lot more than those being bandied about by the so called Pals experts, one of them rang me last week, asking questions, he got some duff info, which sounded good to him.
Bill will now know, and I know what happened that day.
I've now found the names of 700 men who served in the 11th East Lancs, who are not on pages 212 - 237, in the Accrington Pals book.
As to the so called Pals experts making suggestions as to what should be done for the different Pals aniversaries, those projects have been in the pipeline for near 12 months. I have now got some of my pictures in the Theipval Memorial Museum.

Retlaw.

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So, I'm to take it that the figure of 585 from Martin Middlebrook's "First Day on the Somme" is not accurate. If this is the case, then all of the figures in his appendix on the number of casualites by battallion must be suspect, even though one reviewer called them "definitive." Just wondering if anyone else has done the same painstaking reseach you have done on the Pals for any of the other locally-raised units?

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Yes, quite a lot of list in those WW1 books have been found to be incorrect.
Only about 75% are recorded in Soldiers Died in the Great War, there are also several missing from the Commonwealth War Graves Registers. Bill Turner had seven names added to the Thiepval Memorial, I have found another, William Lowther who was killed at the battle of the Somme on July 1st, who should be on the Theipval Memorial.
Retlaw.

Re: Poppies
 

reply was for eric who commented on daisychain post - 2016 it's the 100 anniversary of the battle of the somme. And the quote is retlaws himself - he gave it me last year & exact casualty no. purposely left out