The Journey of the Ribbons

As part of the National Day of Reflection and in partnership with Marie Curie and the National Trust, we have been tying ribbons on a number of beautiful trees in the stunning landscape of the National Trust estate at Runnymede, Surrey.

Linking the Ribbons

Currently, these ribbons are linked with the names of your loved ones lost and are all tree-tied at our Runnymede Memorial site where many of you come to remember, recover and reflect.

These ribbons were always intended to be temporary as we aim to have a more permanent solution with the planting of the memorial trees which will provide not only a physical place one may visit but will also connect digitally.

The new memory tress will work via NFC and QR codes, allowing visitors to use their phones to view the memory page of the loved one, but due to popular demand, we were asked to keep the ribbons in place for an extended time until our recently held Picnic and Reflection event, which celebrated our 6 months anniversary.

A new home for the Ribbons

With this event now concluded, the Covid Memorial has been removed from its original home on the estate. However, they have found a new home on the grounds of a historic site where your loved ones will be remembered and cared for until new trees are planted in their honour.

We here, at the Forest of Memories, have been thrilled to bring so much solace to grieving families across the UK through our ribbons. This sacred collective memorial space will not be removed, rather preserved. In the coming weeks, current ribbons will be collected and transferred from Runnymede to Egham Museum as part of a new installation.

her words, the names of your lost loved ones will be commemorated and recognised further in a communal and historic space.

Our yellow ribbons are written with remembrance.

So, why did we choose Egham Museum?

Established in 1968, Egham Museum is an independent, local history museum that captures national stories from a local lens. We believe this to be the perfect place for our ribbons to continue their journey with the museum giving light to recent tragic histories. Egham Museum is even working on a recovery project that documents the community response to the Covid-19 pandemic along with how we can recover together. With recovery being at the core of what we do at the Forest of Memories, we believe this ribbon exhibition will bring solidarity in sharing your stories, your memories and point us forward to the future where the tragedies of the Covid-19 pandemic are confined to the past.

You can visit the museum from the 6th of September, and is located on Egham High Street in The Literary Institute; the postcode is TW20 9EW.

We hope that all Forest of Memories supporters can visit; you are all most welcome!