ONE of the wooden poppies on the First World War remembrance trail at a Chester country park has been damaged.

A member of the public alerted The Friends of the Countess of Chester Country Park after finding the carving had been knocked over on Wednesday.

It is understood to have been caused by a vehicle.

The wooden poppy, which was next to the public right of way across the countryside from Liverpool Road, will now be repaired and reinstated once the coronavirus pandemic has ended.

Upton ward councillor Jill Houlbrook said on social media: "How disappointing that someone driving a large vehicle on the field behind the bridleway off Liverpool Road should have done this to one of the poppies on our trail.

"Little respect appears to have been shown."

The damaged carving was poppy number seven on the country park's Fallen for the Fallen WW1 Centenary Remembrance Trail.

Last year the trail won an award from the Land Trust for 'Best Project' from their 50-plus sites across the country.

It remembered Helenus Robertson, a Captain with the 2nd Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers, who died aged 35 and is buried at Cambrin Churchyard nr Ypres and William Hancocks, a Private with the King’s Regiment, who died aged 27 and is buried at St Sever Cemetery, Rouen.

The Poppy has been retrieved by Neil McMahon, the country park's senior project officer, as part of his weekly health and safety check.

It has been taken to Andy Scargill, who co-ordinated the Fallen for the Fallen project in 2018, and will be restored by him before being reinstated at a future date.