For years the site known as Manvers in South Yorkshire was known for its coking plant, pits and marshalling yards, best remembered for the acrid sulphur smell as people travelled through it when the mining industry was at its height.

Now, however, the area, near Rotherham, has a different vibe. It is home to executive houses, new shops, a pub, a hotel and even a leisure lake and surrounding park, where there is an outdoor swimming club, paddleboarding, canoeing and an annual dragon boat race.

But the people who live there felt something was missing with no war memorial to gather around for the annual Remembrance Sunday service and wreath laying.

So they set about making their own kind of memorial to honour the dead of two world wars and other conflicts by installing 500 large red poppies along the spine road through the middle of the estate to make sure their sentiments were felt.

Sarah Nowell, Chair of the Manvers Residents Association. Picture By Yorkshire Post Photographer, James Hardisty.

Emily Charlesworth is secretary of Manvers Residents Association which was set up only two years ago, she explained that the idea for the poppies came out of the association, which has six committee members, two of whom have links to the Armed Forces.

She said: “We don’t have our own war memorial, there is one up by Dearne Valley College which is nearly in Swinton, but it’s so far away from us that most people don’t even know it’s there.

“So that’s when Sarah (Nowell), our chairman, came up with the idea of putting the poppies up.”

Sarah added: “With Manvers being a relatively new community, we are missing the traditional war memorials of surrounding villages and we thought it was important for residents to be able to pay their respects in our area.”

Emily Charlesworth from the Manvers Residents Association with poppies put out along Manvers Way in Manvers for Remembrance Sunday, photographed for The Yorkshire Post by Tony Johnson

The group put an appeal out on its Facebook page, asking people to donate £3 each to buy a poppy to put on lamp posts and at the side of the road, and before long they had raised more than £1,700, far exceeding the £900 target they had been aiming for.

That sum, also included a generous donation from the Holiday Inn at Manvers, along with other local businesses and families.

Volunteers, committee members and Army cadets from nearby Mexborough spent up to three hours putting all the poppies up and they will remain in place until next week.

“We have basically flooded the area,” Emily added. “And we also made a donation to the Royal British Legion.”

The association and the Bluebell Inn also held a craft afternoon last month where families could come along and decorate a poppy to be displayed on the fences outside the pub on Manvers Way.

There are no plans to hold a service today for Armistice Day or on Remembrance Sunday at Manvers, but Emily said people are now in no doubt of the community’s support in remembering those who lost their lives in war.

Meanwhile, local MP John Healey has encouraged local residents to pay tribute to the service and sacrifice of UK Armed Forces on Sunday.

The Shadow Defence Secretary has been helping to put up lamppost poppies in in Rawmarsh and Ravenfield and has been out selling poppies with the Royal British Legion in Wath.

Mr Healey said: “Remembrance is a time when the nation comes together to honour all those who have served in our Armed Forces, present and past. This year service personnel have played a leading role in the UK’s united support for Ukraine, coordinating supplies, training troops and supporting our NATO allies.”

Mr Healey also laid a cross in the constituency garden of remembrance at the Palace of Westminster this week.

He said: “I dedicated our cross in remembrance to the West Riding Royal Horse Artillery where their Battery HQ was based at Wentworth Woodhouse from 1908-1916.”

The Yorkshire community that came together to remember without a war memorial