00:00Remembrance Threads is a powerful community-led exhibition weaving together stories of service,
00:06sacrifice and memory, all through the medium of textile art. Thousands of handmade poppies,
00:12each one a symbol of remembrance, sewn with care, now stand beyond HMS Cavalier,
00:19the last surviving Royal Navy destroyer of the Second World War. Each poppy is handmade by
00:24volunteers, each with their own individual story. Well we heard that they were looking for volunteers
00:30from the community to make up to 11,000 poppies for this Threads of Remembrance event. We are knitters,
00:38we are also members of Medway and Maidens Seroptimist group and sometimes get involved in knitting
00:43projects with them to improve lives of women and children and things like this. So we decided to
00:49get involved and we actually made 136 poppies but there was a significance to that and I'll let
00:54my sister explain. Our grandfather, maternal grandfather was born in 1889 until present day
01:01now would be 136 and he served in the First World War and the Second World War with the Royal Navy.
01:07And he was actually based here in 1942 in Chatham so the fact that you know he could have been somewhere
01:15around here we felt it was really nice to be part of that. The project which is supported by Medway
01:21Council aims to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Second World War. This has been a phenomenal
01:26community project. The Dockyard working with many other different organisations and individuals
01:32who have taken their time to create poppies to place here. We were looking at originally at 11,000.
01:39The community have done phenomenal work and we've now got over 20,000 which is remarkable.
01:45I've been chatting to some residents today, some people have taken part and what's been really
01:49interesting for me, some people have produced lots of poppies but some have produced a very specific
01:54number. So for example, one resident who I was speaking to, her dad served in the Royal Navy
02:00for 22 years so she produced 22 poppies. So you can see there lots of individual stories
02:07and experiences that have fed into this project. I'm incredibly proud of the work that's happened
02:12here and I pay tribute to everyone who's played their part in making sure that the threads of
02:17remembrance here at the Dockyard is such a poignant exhibition for everyone to take on board.
02:24Each poppy here speaks without words, a small act of love in memory of lives never forgotten.
02:30Holly Spires for KMCV in Chatham.
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