Royal British Legion Poppy Factory

Part of my work life involves planning tours and visits to places that people have either never been to, didn’t know they could go to, or have to come in a group to do. The Poppy Factory definitely fit the bill, and with this being the WWI centenary, I thought this was the time to visit the Poppy Factory! It was established after the First World War, and it’s where all the poppies, wreaths, and poppy crosses are made, by disabled ex-​servicemen and women.
Tours run fairly often, and individuals can go — but you’ll need to book. I took a group of 20, and we were joined by another group of 20. Everyone on the visit was pensioner aged (except me!). There was a snafu at the beginning with a booking issue — they told me 2pm but it should have been 1.30pm — but it only affected a few people when the visit officially started at 1.45pm.
Everyone sat and listened to our guide (I’m not sure of his history as I was standing outside!) for about an hour, which detailed the history of the idea of a poppy of remembrance, the establishment of the Poppy Factory, and explanations about some of the royal wreaths, just to name a few things.
After this, we went through to the actual factory. You immediately encounter the machine that cuts the paper (and polyester) for the poppy petals, as well as seeing the boxes and boxes of poppies and wreaths, all of which get stored somewhere down in Kent.
Finally we got through to the poppy assembly area. A small number of workers — 10, perhaps? — make the poppies here. (Some poppies are also assembled by people who can’t travel in, and we saw the pallets of the components that would be sent on to these home workers). They make numerous wreaths, poppies, crosses, etc. They were all very happy to show us what they were doing and just talk in general about their work — really approachable! We got to use the jigs — the same design as when the Factory started in the 1920s — to make poppies ourselves. The idea is that you can assemble the poppies with one hand — and yep, you can! But could I produce the 1200 – 1500 a day that a worker does there? Probably not!
All in all, an interesting day if you have interest in the military or the British Legion in general. It’s not really an area of interest for me but I could still appreciate the whole 2 hour visit — and several of the people I brought told me after that they were moved to tears.