27/11/2025
Good evening Congleton - please see below Congleton Poppy Appeal 2025 Update from our Poppy Appeal Coordinator William Brownlee:
This year we launched the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal at the Congleton Makers Market on Saturday 25th October. The event was attended by RBL Branch Members, RAF Cadets, Poppy Appeal Volunteers and of course family members. Our Town Mayor, Robert Brittain and his wife Susan, the Mayoress joined us on our stall. The launch event raised £1,351.67 which was a superb amount and got our Poppy Appeal off to a great start.
The generosity from the people of Congleton and surrounding area continued throughout this year’s Poppy Appeal and I am extremely pleased to announce that this year your donations totalled £29,132.40. This is a record amount raised by Congleton and a figure we are immensely proud of.
The Poppy Appeal relies on support from the local community including local businesses and Schools. We would like to thank some of the organisations and people that threw their support behind us:
• Congleton Town Council. Thank you for providing us with a stall on Makers Market Day for our launch event.
• Congleton Town Mayor and Mayoress. Your support at our launch event was appreciated by our Branch Members and members of the public.
• Local Schools. It never ceases to amaze us at the amount of money donated by pupils and staff of all our local schools. This year they donated £1,944.02 which is a fantastic amount of money.
• 230 Squadron RAFAC. 230 (Congleton) Sqn RAF Cadets not only attended the Launch Event at the Makers market but had a presence in the town centre the following 2 Saturdays. They raised a superb £1,437.69
• Tesco and Morrisons. The friendly staff of Morrison’s and Tesco's who made our volunteers welcome and looked after them during the Poppy Appeal. The customers at both stores have raised a massive £16,649.83.
• Congleton Town. We were most grateful for your support by allowing Branch members to be at the home game on 01 November and collect for the Poppy Appeal. The money raised on the day, including the generous donation from the Club was £797.20.
• West Heath Precinct. We are grateful to the Hollins Murray Group for allowing the RBL to set up their stall inside the West Heath shopping precinct.
• Donations. The Congleton Poppy Appeal received a number of donations that were gratefully received. I would like to say thank you to St Peters Church Congleton, John Dines, Andrew Parkes and Eaton Parish Church.
• Knitted Poppies. Many thanks to a lady called Patricia from West Heath for taking the time to produce well over 200 poppies for this year’s appeal. All the poppies sold out and were clearly a big hit with the public.
• Volunteers. In total 26 people volunteered to man our stalls over the 2 weeks of the Poppy Appeal. The volunteers comprised of Congleton RBL Branch Members, RBL Poppy Appeal Volunteers, family members and friends. Without them giving up their time and supporting this year’s appeal we would not have raised this year’s record amount.
The RBL Poppy Appeal requires volunteers to help out and man the stalls at our supermarkets and other locations. We are always on the lookout for, and would welcome new volunteers. If you would like to get involved or help out next year, please either contact myself or come along to one of our RBL Branch meetings and chat about what we do. Membership to the Royal British Legion is open to all, not just Ex Service personnel. The Congleton RBL Branch meet at 19:00hrs every second Friday of the month from February to December at The Prince of Wales Pub, Lawton Street, Congleton. More information is available at the following links:
https://branches.britishlegion.org.uk/branches/congleton and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064283036321
