Flanders poppies have been sown around Kildwick’s war memorial.

Six children from the village primary school joined members of the congregation from St Andrew’s Church to carry out the sowing.

The event was part of an initiative organised by Anglican dioceses throughout the country – and locally by the new diocese of West Yorkshire & the Dales – to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.

“The diocese sent packets of poppies to all its churches and church schools asking that we plant them on April 30,” said Kildwick vicar the Rev Robin Figg.

“We’re hoping all the poppies will be in bloom on August 4, which is the centenary of Great Britain entering what would become known as the First World War.”

Kildwick CE Primary School headteacher Debbie Cooksey said: “The diocese also sent us a packet of seeds, which we planted in our school garden, but planting the poppies around the war memorial provided an opportunity to support our links with the church.”

Others at the war memorial event included Mr Figg’s 92-year-old mother-in-law, Sheila Wills, who as a young lieutenant during the Second World War, was among the first nursing officers to land in Normandy after D-Day. Her father served in the Great War.

“I know he’d hoped – as all parents do – that my brother and I would live in a peaceful world,” she said. “Watching the children plant the poppy seeds, I was praying for all the children around the world still suffering because of war.”