MORE than 100 people have gathered by a new remembrance meadow in York to remember the millions who died in the First World War - in particular 64 young men from the Holgate area.

As the centenary of the beginning of the First World War approaches, Jane Lund and a group of other Holgate residents have created wild flower meadows on land off Poppleton Road and Holgate Road as part the Royal British Legion's Centenary Poppy Campaign.

More than 20 varieties of flowers have been planted, including poppies, cornflowers, marigolds and shepherd's purse

At a dedication ceremony on Saturday, piper Rachel Blueman played as the names of the 64 Holgate victims were read out and then as 100 paper poppies, impregnated with poppy seeds, were symbolically planted.

The York Railway Institute Band played music including The Poppies of the Field, written for the event by York composer Peter Byrom-Smith, while earlier youngster Poppy Morgan read out a poem by the same title by Gill Byrom-Smith.

Jane told the gathered crowd that the First World War had been so great and terrible that the writer HG Wells had called it the 'war to end all wars,' but tragically it was no such thing, and listening to the news of late had left many with a deep sense of sadness and despair as they heard about the devastation caused by continuing conflict worldwide

"And so today, as we gather to commemorate the centenary....it seems to matter that we think about remembering," she said.

"When we stop remembering, the forgetting begins. When we forget, we lose the collective will to ensure we don't visit the same horror again."

She thanked Anna Cook, who researched and gathered the names of the 64 young men who lay in the cemeteries of France and Flanders.

After the ceremony, people visited the nearby Fox Inn to see an exhibition of photographs taken on the day in spring when the flowers were planted.