This year's Whittington Fete will feature a special nod to celebrate the centenary.

Whittington Together, the committee that organise the annual fete, decided that this year the theme will celebrate the end of the First World War and the fete will feature a cascade of poppies down Whittington Castle.

The committee started planning the poppy cascade in October and after asking the people of Whittington to help create poppies, they have received thousands of crochet, knitted and plastic designs of the flower, which will create a 30ft cascade down the castle.

Ian Johnson, chairman of the committee, said he was overwhelmed with the amount of support the idea has received.

"We set a target of 2,000 poppies by the end of July and we have exceed that," he said.

"Bearing in mind people have had just three months to create the flowers, it really is amazing. I'm very proud of everyone who has contributed - we've had the school children, church goers, parish councillors all busy making poppies.

"The idea is that every poppy represents someone, whether they fought in the war or whether they were back at home taking care of everybody else.

"The Royal British Legion is currently running a Thank You campaign, and this is our way of saying thank you to all those who served in the First World War."

There are over ten different designs of poppy that will be seen for the first time at Whittington Village Fete on Monday, August 27.

"We are very lucky that we have National Lottery Funding to move things forward," said Ian.

"We have a wide variety of stalls at the Fete, plenty of food stalls and rides – there's something for everyone to enjoy. "

Chairman of Whittington Parish Council, Jill Whitby said she had never seen anything like the poppy initiative in the village before.

"It is amazing that the community has got involved as much as they have," she said.

"My cousin in Australia has even sent poppies over!"

Whittington Fete takes place on Monday, August 27 from 12pm to 4pm at Whittington Castle.