Bicester pupils plant plastic poppy field at Tesco

In a modest bid to honour the Armistice centenary this week, staff at Tesco invited children from five local primary schools to come and plant a 'field' of plastic poppies made from old bottles on the grassy mound outside the Lakeview Drive store.

The shop's community champion Bryan Taunton explained the scheme was inspired by a post on the Bicester Chat Facebook group from resident Annie Prouse, who encouraged people to make the recycled flowers.

Starting on Tuesday morning, the store has already welcomed pupils from Chesterton, Glory Farm and St Edburg’s primary schools, and has invited Longfields and Southwold to come down tomorrow.

However the scheme is more than just plastic: the pupils have also been planting real poppy seeds, donated by Blue Diamond Garden Centre, so that in years to come the mound will blossom with Remembrance red as a lasting tribute.

In the meantime, once this weekend's ceremonies are over the plastic poppies will be collected up and sent for proper recycling.