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Poppy Trail

About the Poppy Trail Project

To mark the Centenary of the end of WW1 Garstang & District Heritage Society created a Poppy Trail around the Garstang Rural District.

We placed these poppy plaques at war memorials, churches and other sites of significance.

Each plaque has a QR code in the bottom right hand corner which can be scanned with a smartphone. This will take you to our website where you will find all the information about that site and persons connected with it.

Download a copy of the Poppy Trail leaflet here:

Our grateful thanks are due to the following who have helped us with the research into the fallen of the district from both World Wars:

Family and friends of the fallen

Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation and Ronald “Scotty” Hirst

Alice Collinson

Anthony Coppin

Christopher Crane

Gerry Dagger

Carol and John Edwards (214 Squadron website)

Ron Flowers

Jean Fone

Brenda Fox

Alan Green

Lancashire Archives

Leo Gardner

Mike Howes

The Kings Own Royal Lancaster Museum

The Rifles Museum

Tony Paton

Julia Quinney

Roy Peaker

Paul Robinson

John Rowe

Paul Smith

Lynn Walton

Sylvia Wilding

The War Graves Photographic Project

U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency

Venerable English College, Rome

6th November 2020: Update – new War Memorial placed at Cabus

Cabus War Memorial was placed near to Cabus Village Hall on 6th November 2020 by Cabus Village Hall Committee. It was donated to the committee by Wyre Memorials of Fleetwood.

We have now included Cabus as part of our Poppy Trail here

11th April 2018:  Update – Poppy Trail Map

We are very pleased to have linked up with Cabus Parish Council on a project to develop our Poppy Trail leaflet.

Cabus is one of the parishes within the Garstang Rural District that has no significant Poppy Trail sites, so we were unable to locate a plaque there as part of our trail.

However we are really pleased that they have offered their help with designing our Poppy Trail leaflet.  They have recently published a Historic Cabus leaflet, which details a history and heritage walking trail around the district. We think that with their help our Poppy Trail leaflet will be equally colourful and informative.

You can download a Historic Cabus Map here

15th February 2018:  Update – the Bleasdale Air Crash Memorial

We are very pleased to have linked with other organisations in our research into the air crash memorial at Bleasdale.  As a result of these links we have been able to obtain photographs of the USAF and Polish Air Force personnel who were killed in air crashes on the fells around Bleasdale, and who are named on the memorial.

The information about all those named, together with the photographs has now been uploaded to the Bleasdale page of the Poppy Trail section of this website.

Our grateful thanks go to:

 https://niebieskaeskadra.pl/  who provided information and the photo of Romuald Zywicki

The Berlin Airlift Historical Foundation: http://www.spiritoffreedom.org/  who provided the information and photos of all the USAF personnel who were killed

The United States Air Force who provided us with information about the crash on the 7th January 1949.

24th October 2018:  Thank you

Following on from our Poppy Trail launch last night we would like to thank all of the people who made our project possible.

For letting us fix poppy plaques our thanks are due to the Parish Councils, churches and chapels, memorial halls, parish halls and war memorial trusts from the rural district – thank you.

For designing, creating and helping to fix the plaques we thank Adrian and all the staff at Pilling Pottery

For creating and fixing QR codes to the plaques, and for help with designing and printing Poppy Trail information leaflets – thanks to Luke at Printmob.

For donations to the project our thanks go to Shaun Turner at LCC, Garstang Town Council, and Garstang Lions.

Thanks also to Reverend John Griffiths at St Thomas’s church for his wholehearted support for the project from the start, and for joining us last night to say a prayer.

And last but by no means least – thanks to Steve at the Cheese Stall in Garstang Indoor Market and another Steve at Croston Wines, Garstang for providing wine and cheese for last night. Huge thanks to you all!

24th October 2018:  Update

Last night we held the official launch of the Poppy Trail.

Our chairman welcomed representatives from local councils, our borough councillors, churches, local branch of the Royal British Legion and the Mayor of Garstang to the official launch of the Trail.

Guests watched a video presentation about the project, followed by a question and answer session and a prayer from Reverend John Griffiths of St. Thomas’s church.The Trail is now well on track for the 100 year anniversary of the Armistice on 11th November 2018.

We have had to order more poppy plaques due to the interest from local parishes so there is a short delay in fixing but we hope to fix most plaques well in time.It was a lovely evening, and we hope the Trail will ensure that all the fallen of the Garstang Rural District will be remembered for the future as a result of the Trail.

Remember you can still send information, photos, press cuttings or anything about the men who fell to us for inclusion on the website.

10th October 2018: Update

Representatives from Scorton Parish Council, St. Peter’s Church, St. Mary and James Church, Scorton Methodist Chapel, children from Scorton School with their headmistress and Alec Allan from GDHS at the newly installed Poppy Plaque at Scorton War Memorial this morning.

6th October 2018:  Update

Today was a busy one!  We have fixed plaques at Bleasdale Parish Hall, St. Eadmer’s Church at Bleasdale, Scorton War Memorial, St. Peter’s Church, Scorton, Claughton Memorial Hall and Memorial Garden, and Catterall Memorial Gate.

Again, please be patient as we continue to upload information to the Poppy Trail section of the website – there’s lots of it, plus research is constantly ongoing.

10th September 2018:  Update

Tonight we have been out and about fixing more Poppy Plaques with Adrian from Pilling Pottery.

Plaques have been fixed at Garstang Town Hall, Kirkland and Catterall Memorial Hall, Forton War Memorial, St. Paul’s Church Shireshead, Nateby War Memorial and St. Luke’s Church Winmarleigh.

Not all the information about each location is uploaded to our website yet, but it will be uploaded in the coming weeks as soon as all the research has been done.

More news about plaques to follow soon!

The Poppy Plaque outside St. Paul’s Church, Shireshead

16th July 2018: Update

Tonight we invited the Mayor of Garstang, Councillor Leah Hynes,  to the placing of the first plaque in our WW1 Commemorative Poppy Trail.

The plaque was fixed in the garden of the War Memorial by Adrian Cross, the Managing Director of Pilling Pottery, on a plinth especially made by them.

Also present was Alan Pearson from Garstang in Bloom who have taken on the responsibility for caring for the plaque, as they already care for the garden.

Following the fixing of this plaque, Adrian fixed the next three plaques in the trail. One is at Garstang United Reformed Church, one at St. Thomas’s Church and one to the side of the Singletons building in the High Street.

A fifth plaque will be added to the Town Hall shortly.

Each plaque has a unique QR code in the corner, allowing them to be scanned by a smartphone app which takes the user to the relevant information page on our website. The codes were designed and printed for us by Printmob of Garstang.

Further plaques will be fixed around the rural district in the coming weeks and we hope to have all the significant sites covered by the time of the centenary of the end of WW1 on 11th November this year.

19th June 2018: Update

Pilling Pottery are now glazing the Poppy Plaques – don’t they look fantastic?

17th June 2018: Update on the Poppy Trail Project

Information about Garstang War memorial has now been added to the website, and a dedicated page has gone live.  We are indebted to Paul Smith, a local historian, who has kindly allowed us to use information from his book “Garstang’s Great War Heroes” for our project.

The Poppy Trail part of our website is still very much a work in progress, so if you have anything to add or anything that you think we have missed please get in touch.  This is a community project and we welcome any contributions from you.

If you would like a copy of the book, copies are still available at Kwik Kuts, Park Hill Road, Garstang, Market Place News in Market Place, Garstang, and also at the Tourist Information office in Cherestanc Square, Garstang.

10th June 2018: Update on the Poppy Trail Project 

We have been contacted by the Royal British Legion who are interested in the project, as part of their “Time to Say Thank You” commemoration of the end of WW1. We will be included on their Facebook page soon, and we have permission to use the Thank You Logo as part of our project.

You can find more information about the Royal British Legion “Time to Say Thank You” here

27th April 2018:

We wanted to source our plaques locally so we contacted Pilling Pottery and asked for their help.

The brilliant staff there have designed and produced this beautiful poppy plaque for us and today we took the Mayor of Garstang, Councillor Peter Ryder to view the final design.

Keep watching for more updates about the project!