Daily Telegraph on Saturday 9 August
Added on 09 August 2014
"The poignancy of a single voice"
In the village of Great Tew stands the church of St Michael and All Saints. To mark the centenary of the Great War the parishioners planted poppies in the churchyard – and on Monday, as the nation said collectively “we shall remember them”, a single poppy flowered. “Aren’t we lucky?” asked one of the helpers at the church. Indeed they were.
There is something poignant about a single flower, just as there is about a single voice, like Last Post, which breaks the silence on Remembrance Sunday. “When men are dying like flies,” said Alan Bennett, talking about the poetry of Housman, “that is what they are dying like.” A single death carries more emotional weight. A solitary poppy, suggesting the fragility of life, can be as moving as a whole field of them."
In Colwinston, we have St Michael and All Angels. The Community Council, to mark the centenary, had over 1Kg of poppy seeds sown on the approaches to the village. By Monday 4th August, the only poppies that had appeared were those grown by some villagers and St David's Schoolchildren. Those poppies that had grown were planted by each signpost for the village. For Colwinston, the few poppies that had appeared were enough to reflect on how fortunate this village was during the Great War. A Blessed Village in all senses. Long may this be the case!!