A RIVER of poppies running through parkland in Tenbury will be part of the town’s commemoration of 100 years since the start of the First World War.

People from throughout the town came to the civic gardens to lend a hand with the project that it is hoped will be a feature of the town for the next four years.

They began the task of digging out the poppy bed and planting the seeds.

Poppies have been a symbol of the First World War as they were about the only plant that grew on the mud strewn fields of Flanders where so many young men lost their lives.

The blood red colour of the poppy is also in keeping with the carnage and loss of life that was such a feature of the war between 1914 and 1918.

Tenbury Town Council gave its permission for the river of poppies that will be just part of the commemoration.

There will be a special service at 11pm on Monday August 4 to mark the anniversary of the start of the conflict.

A committee has set up to organise a programme of events and it is hoped that over the weekend of Saturday August 2 to Monday August 4 there will be a recreation of Tenbury as it was in the summer of 1914.

There will be an exhibition in The Pump Rooms and students from Tenbury High School are involved in a project about the town as it was 100 years ago.