POPPIES that made up Britain's biggest war memorial at the Tower of London will find a new home in Wilcot to honour the soldiers from the Wiltshire Regiment who are named on the village’s monument.

The village bought eight poppies from the memorial, which started in July 2014 and was taken down the following November.

Tim Hollier, one of the people behind the Wilcot poppies, said: “The poppies at the Tower of London were just the most fantastic thing. It was just so moving, I had tears in my eyes.

“I thought it might be a nice thing for the village so I said why don’t we buy eight poppies to represent the eight soldiers on the village monument?

“A lot of people have bought their poppies and now they are looking for something to do with them.

“ I would love it if other communities would see what was being done here and perhaps look at doing something similar.”

The poppies have been set in oak by parish councillor Chris Bartlett and the memorial will be presented to the village on May 10, the Sunday of the VE day celebrations.

Brass lettering has been engraved onto the oak which reads: For your tomorrow we gave our today.

Mr Hollier, whose grandfathers fought in the First World War, said: “It will be an all inclusive ceremony and there won’t just be 10 people, there will be 150.

“It’s a whole community thing because it was quite expensive so villagers have donated towards it.

“The church have offered a stain glass window where it can stay and it’s portable so if there is something going on in the village where there is a reason to talk about the war it can move.”

Over the months that the poppies took pride of place at the tower, millions of visitors went to see the display and pay their respects.

A total of 888,246 were placed at the memorial, the number of British and Commonwealth troops killed during the First World War.