THE humble puttee, made by Fox Bros & Co in Wellington, is set to feature in a Great War remembrance installation at Salisbury Cathedral.

Textile artist Suzie Gutteridge has used 100 puttees and felt poppies, two poignant symbols of war, to create the artwork marking the centenary of the end of the conflict.

The Wiltshire artist worked with groups on the Heritage Lottery funded social and community project Binding the Past to the Present Through Remembrance this spring and summer. Now Wellington Museum has a display about it and the historical background.

Suzie was inspired by a set of puttees she found which belonged to her father and while researching their history she found the Government had commissioned Fox Bros to make them.

She wanted to create a piece of artwork honouring memory and remembrance, and sourced 100 puttees, each representing one year since the end of the war, from an army surplus shop.

The members of 15 community workshops made the felt and about 4,700 poppies, all of which have been sewn onto the puttees.

The putties, about eight metres wide and four metres deep, will hang on wires at the cathedral with visitors able to walk through them.

Suzie said: “The project has been an amazing and humbling experience with so many people being involved and joining at the different stages. So many stories and memories shared through the humble puttee – history being passed on, remembered. Thank you, Dad, for the inspiration.”

The installation will hang in Salisbury Cathedral’s Morning Chapel from Friday, October 26, to Sunday, November 25.

n Puttees were a long strip of cloth wound around the leg from ankle to knee for protection and support.