Since it was founded 90 years ago, the Poppy Factory has produced millions of buttonhole poppies to mark Remembrance Day each November. This year the 35-strong workforce at Richmond upon Thames in west London have made, by hand, 500,000 of the classic stylised flowers – a small but significant proportion of the 45 million produced in total.
Another 11.5 million have been created by homeworkers, and the rest on an automated production line at Aylesford in Kent. As Remembrance Sunday approaches, take a tour of the Poppy Factory – and see how the instantly recognisable buttonholes are put together on a simple wooden block.