Poppy picking

I was lucky enough to secure a place on one of the 3-hour shifts needed to help dismantle the poppy installation at the Tower of London. It was hard physical work in an extremely muddy environment but also great fun and I met people from all over, including the USA, France and the Netherlands.

Tasks included lifting the poppies from the ground, taking them off their stems, wheeling barrowloads of poppy heads to be put into cartons to be then transported to be washed and inspected before despatch, taking the washers off the metal stems and bundling the stems up. These too will be cleaned before despatching with the poppy heads.

I am so pleased I saw the installation about half-way into it being complete.

You can see the rest of my photos from my de-installation shift here.