Photograph credit: Lynn Muir
The AIA’s talented Dreel Crafters have again created a stunning display of handmade poppies marking Remembrance Day in the East Neuk. The group continues to add to the display, started in 2024, and has put together another striking and poignant Remembrance Day installation at Dreel Halls. Hand-knitted poppies adorn the front entrance of our community building, cascading over a five metre drop from a window at the front of the 16th-century St Nicholas Tower, creating a beautiful display and wonderful tribute of remembrance.
Volunteers sourced the fishing net in 2025, with assistance from Pittenweem Harbour Master, Steven Middleton, who very kindly supported the project by cutting and shaping the net, to create two drapes to hang above the entrance of the building. The repurposed fishing net is representative of our fishing heritage in the East Neuk and creates a unique backdrop for the poppies. The hand-crafted display also includes poppies on stakes dotted around the graveyard surrounding the building, garlands and nets wrapped around posts, with the addition this year of a poppy-covered cross and three wreaths in a stunning interior window display.
The Dreel Crafters group started in 2022 and now meets twice weekly at Dreel Halls. The crafters installed a small remembrance display of 250 hand knitted poppies outside our heritage building and surrounding graveyard in 2024. After a positive response from the community the group were inspired to do more. Between November 2024 and October 2026, members of the group continued to knit poppies, extending the invitation to the local community to contribute to the Poppies Project. The shared project connected people in a new way, it encouraged others to get involved and contribute with a shared aim. Friends, family members and people from the wider community donated their knitting to the group’s project, some from as far afield as England and Wales.
The group has now collected over 4,000 poppies for this year’s Remembrance Day display at Dreel Halls and the surrounding Anstruther Wester graveyard, home to a Commonwealth War Grave. The Upper Hall of Dreel Halls, the former Anster Wester Town Hall, was at one time the meeting place of the Royal British Legion. The Poppies Project highlights both the past and present use of our historic building, whilst paying tribute and remembering those we have lost.
Dreel Crafters continues to look for donations of handmade, knitted poppies to add to next year’s Remembrance Day display at Dreel Halls, Anstruther.
You can use your own pattern or download a poppy pattern here. Knitted poppies can be dropped off at Dreel Halls or you can email the AIA’s Community Development Worker, Julia Priestley on julia@anstrutherimprovements.org to arrange collection.
Dreel Crafters is organised by the AIA and meets twice a week at Dreel Halls; all are welcome to join us. You can find more information about the group here.
