The Poppy Appeal in Wells has raised £6,000 for the Royal British Legion this year, despite the challenges of the coronavirus restrictions.

While this figure was considerably below the £27,000 collected in 2019, the Wells branch of the Royal British Legion say they are pleased with the result considering they were running the appeal during the pandemic.

Currently the national Poppy Appeal figure is around £6 million compared with £40 million last year and Somerset is around £68,000 compared with £1 million last year.

Wells Poppy Appeal organiser Derek Cooper said: "In this strange year it was always the intention of the committee to ensure the safety of our members, volunteers and public.

"This I think we achieved but still managed, despite all the restrictions we had to concur with, to so far raise £6,000.

"It's a far cry from last year's £27,000 but considering all we were up against, we are pleased with this and thank everyone for their support.

"We are grateful to the number of businesses that had tins in Wells, Wookey and Priddy, despite the number being limited by head office this year.

"Thanks also to the mayor and Wells Town Hall staff for taking in our delivery of poppies, etc, and for a place to work in.

"Tesco had poppies supplied direct by the Legion and allowed us on a few afternoons to hold a stall there and we thank Tesco for that and Melanie Goody for running it.

"We are also grateful to Graham, the market manager, for allowing us two Saturdays - which would have been three without lockdown - to hold a stall there where some of our slightly younger members, who were in family bubbles, were allowed to operate it.

"Early on Sunday November 8 we laid all the organisations' wreaths at St Cuthbert's Church with just the mayor in attendance laying the wreath on behalf of the city and council.

"At 11am, a few of the Legion members and public observed the two minutes' silence. At the same time a few committee members did the same at the Harry Patch Memorial and at the plaque at the cemetery.

"Likewise on Wednesday November 11 at 11am in the Market Place, a group gathered and in complete silence a short Act of Remembrance was held, lead by the Rev Clare Cowlin.

"Our hope is that next year life might have returned to some sort of normality as its the 100th year of the Royal British Legion and also of the Wells branch, which was one of the first to be launched 100 years ago."