Gosfield artist's poppy bench to raise money for charity

Engineering artist Den Humphrey, who runs Out of Our Tree in the village, will create a serpentine bench made of oak for the My WiSH Charity trail.

Mr Humphrey is building the 4ft high and 25ft long bench which will feature wooden poppies up to 700mm in diameter.

Members of the public can purchase the poppy and a name, tribute or message of dedication will be applied to the flower.

Once the trail concludes the poppy will be given to each individual buyer.

The money raised from both the poppies and the trail will be going to the My WiSH Charity’s Every Heart Matters appeal.

The trail will be made entirely by artists and sculptors from the region with designs dotted across the Suffolk town of Bury St Edmunds.

At the culmination of the trail an auction will take place to sell off all of the pieces with the funds raised all going to the charity, which supports the West Suffolk Hospital.

The appeal is aiming to raise £500,000 to help fund a brand new cardiac centre for patients at the hospital.

Mr Humphrey is also making an additional poppy bench and table plus a large oak remembrance book for the trail.

He said: “With the serpentine bench I had this image of a trench and was able to recreate it in oak.

“I hope it will relate to a lot of people and hope that they will buy one of the wooden poppies.”

My WiSH fundraising manager Sue Smith added: “It’s going to be very exciting, it’s going to be bringing the community back together again and it’s going to allow our younger generation to become more aware of the First World War and what it means today, which I think is extremely important.”

A series of 18 pieces of art will go on display in Bury St Edmunds from July 23 and will run until Armistice Day.

To find out more, call 01284 712952 or e-mail fundraising@wsh.nhs.uk.