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It was ninety years ago that the Royal British Legion was formed to represent the ex-Service community.  At the same time, the red poppy was adopted by the Legion to symbolise remembrance of those killed in conflict during the 1914 - 1918 war.  This simple flower, which started to grow in the battle-spoilt fields of the Western Front, was a source of inspiration to the Canadian military doctor, John McCrae.  In 1915, he wrote what became one of the most famous wartime poems:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row by row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

In turn, this poem inspired the American academic, Moina Michael who, in 1918, was employed on the staff of the Overseas YMCA Secretaries in New York.  From that time, she vowed to always wear a red poppy in remembrance of those who died on Flanders fields.  Moina Michael worked tirelessly to get the flower recognised in the USA as a national memorial symbol.  Eventually, in September 1920, at a convention of the National American Legion, it was agreed to use the poppy as the US national emblem of remembrance.

At this same convention, a representative of the French YMCA Secretariat, Madame Anna Guerin, was deeply impressed by this move.  She saw that the sale of artificial memorial poppies could be a way of raising funds to help children in war-torn France.  Madame Guerin organised French widows to make millions of poppies which were sold throughout America.

In 1921, Anna Guerin sent her French poppy sellers to London and persuaded Field Marshal Earl Douglas Haig, a founder and president of the British Legion, to adopt the poppy as its symbol.  The first British Poppy Day Appeal was launched in the run-up to the third anniversary of the Armistice on 11th November 1921.  The proceeds of these French-made poppies were distributed to British ex-servicemen in need of support.

This is the international story behind the poppy as a symbol of remembrance, but how did the villagers of Bishopthorpe respond when the first poppies were sold here?

On Wednesday, 9th November 1921, the Yorkshire Gazette reported on a whist drive and dance held at the Reading Room (Village Hall) to raise funds for the building.  However, at the end of the piece, a short noteworthy paragraph recorded a remarkable, but low-key start to the event.  Before the whist drive commenced, Miss Hilda Wells was to be "complimented on her smartness in disposing of a large number of red poppies made by the women and children in the devastated areas of France and marked 'British Legion' and 'Remembrance Day'."  Miss Wells sold a poppy to almost all of those who were present.

A small beginning within a larger piece of history. 

Main Street has been looking less than picturesque of late, but we're assured that it's all in a good cause.  Since before Christmas, Yorkshire Water has been upgrading the water mains throughout the village in order to improve the quality of our water.

It's frustrating to find the streets turned into obstacle courses - and to spend a day without water on tap - but consider what it must have been like when it had to be pumped up from wells and carried back home in buckets.  This didn't, of course, apply to the Palace household because water was pumped into the building directly from the murky depths of the Ouse.  That continued until 1863 when the scientifically-minded Archbishop Thomson arrived.  He installed a water tower and pump house in Acaster Lane which made use of a well.

As for the rest of Bishopthorpe's residents, they had to wait a while longer.  In 1880, the vicar, with his colleagues of the vestry, tried to interest the York New Water Works Company in laying a mains water supply.  Unfortunately, a guaranteed rental of £80 per annum was demanded and the idea was quickly dropped.  The village had to wait until 1898 before a mains supply was ordered through the District Council - and by this time, most of the local wells had been condemned as unsafe.   

Frustrated?  Let's hear it for the 'good old days'!