Remembering the animal victims of war.

More knitted poppies of remembrance have appeared on the gates of the village Church Hall including a number of purple ones.

The purple poppy serves to remember the huge numbers of horses, dogs and pigeons that have died alongside soldiers, particularly during the first world war

The poetry of the First World War mentions horses only rarely. Ivor Gurney's "Pain" is particularly powerful on the subject in his poem Pain.

An army of grey bedrenched scarecrows in rows
Careless at last of cruellest Fate-sending.
Seeing the pitiful eyes of men foredone,
Or horses shot, too tired merely to stir,
Dying in shell-holes both, slain by the mud.