05
Nov 2024
Knitted tank returns to Ripon for Remembrance Day
Ripon’s knitted tank has returned to the city ahead of Remembrance Day.
The tank has been on tour in Llandudno, North Wales where it was part of Llandudno The Longest Yarn D-Day Tribute – a large exhibition of creative knitting which ran from September 28 to November 2.
It has now returned to Ripon Market Square until November 12 to commemorate the end of the Second World War as part of the city’s remembrance events.
The life-size replica, which is 24 feet long, nine feet wide and seven feet high was created this year ahead of the D-Day 80th anniversary.
It was created through a collaboration between Ripon Community Poppy Project and the city's Men's Shed.
The team worked together in a hangar provided by the Engineers at Claro Barracks and was modelled on the Churchill AVRE bunker busting tank.
The tank builders pictured at the Ripon inn, from the left: Carol Dunkley, Hazel Barker and Stuart Martin of Ripon Community Poppy Project, with Richard Thomson and Gordon Woods of Ripon Men's Shed
Stuart Martin, who co-founded Ripon Community Poppy Project with Hazel Barker, told the Stray Ferret:
We went to Llandudno at the weekend to collect the tank and bring it back to Ripon.
We did this because members of 21 Engineer Regiment and the Ripon Royal Engineers Association said it would be great to have the tank back in the city in time for Sunday’s march past.
The cost of transporting the ‘bunker buster’ to and from Wales, was covered by the organisers of the Longest Yarn exhibition in Llandudno, who arranged the transportation, and we have had invaluable logistical help from Ripon Farm Services as the tank has moved from location to location.
After Remembrance Sunday, the tank will go into storage at Claro Barracks, and we are open to sensible suggestions from organisations and businesses who have the space and facilities to put this life-size replica on public display.
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