FOUR years ago, a group of residents of the small rural parish of Dowland found out that three soldiers from the parish had been killed during World War One.

Local resident Sue Dunn explained: “As Dowland has no war memorial, not even a plaque in Church or anything at all to remember them, a group of us felt very strongly that this should be put right.  So the planning of how we were going to do this began.

“As our soldiers were all farmers, born in the parish, we wanted a memorial to have a rural feel, so decided to make something ourselves in the parish as we felt this was more meaningful and personal.

“To unveil our memorial, we are having an event, held over two weekends, October 21, 22, and 23 and 28, 29 and 30.

“The event will be open from 10.30am to 5pm with free entry, free parking and refreshments available.

“We would love people to come and view the thousands of flowers, with the churchyard turned into a poppy field and see the displays inside the church, highlighting the lives of our three young men who did not return to Dowland.

“This event will aim to bring the names of our lost soldiers back into the community for generations to remember.“

Sue explained that the Memorial is actually a large seat, handmade from metal in a workshop at Dowland and designed to resemble the farm gate of a Devonshire field.

Sue continued: “We have incorporated poppies on either side for remembrance and three helmets hang over the gate, one for each of our soldiers.

“To accompany this memorial, there will be 5,000 poppies outside in the churchyard, cascading down the tower, out of the windows and encircling the memorial seat.

“Inside the church will be more than 3,000 handmade flowers creating a timeline, telling the story of the young men and their short lives. These flowers were all handmade of fabric, clay, paper, wool etc by local people in remembrance of our soldiers.”

She added: “We started this meaningful project at the beginning of the year and several local businesses and individuals got behind the project to make it possible.“

The soldiers from Dowland who died were Arthur Piper (21) and his brother, William Piper (28) and George Westcott (21).

Sue said that four Piper brothers actually went to War, with the third Piper brother, Harry, dying after the end of the war of influenza.

“So the family actually lost three sons.

“Although none of the Piper family remain in the village, George Westcott’s relatives still farm in the parish.

“As you can imagine it has been a mammoth project but one that we were all motivated to achieve so future generations have the knowledge of the sacrifices they made.

“Although we are a very small rural village our aim is to acknowledge, remember and honour the sacrifices a generation made.“

Donations offered during the Dowland Memorial Event will go to the Royal British Legion and Dowland Church.