Poppies rain from the sky

Reporter: KEN BENNETT
Date published: 10 November 2014


THE sky was filled with clouds of red poppies as a community remembered those who never grew old.

The delicate stream of colour embraced the rugged moorland cenotaph at Pots and Pans in Saddleworth.

On a plateau 1,200ft above the mosaic of villages, thousands of people gathered for Remembrance Sunday.

Hundreds of onlookers gazed skywards as a tiny, four-seater Piper Arrow aircraft circled, piloted by Malcolm Hill (81), a distinguished member of Saddleworth Rotary Club and his friend Jeff Hine.

Twelve hours earlier they had collected the poppies for their special aerial delivery after a packed concert of remembrance at Uppermill Civic hall.

Now the drifting poppies entered the hearts and minds of villagers, assembled to remember family, relatives and friends who had fought and died in wars spanning a hundred years.

Medals gleaming, former soldiers Steven and Matthew Symes from Delph stood proudly with their parents, Gilbert and Joyce. They shared with their brother Iain (47), a military lineage spanning conflicts from the Falklands to Afghanistan.

Nearby, RAF Flt Lt Richard Hill (29) from Grasscroft, in camouflage top, remembered a friend lost in a war zone.

The Rev Godfrey Adams, assistant curate of the Saddleworth CE team and chaplain to 2200 squadron Saddleworth Air Cadets, took the service and complimented families who had brought youngsters.