Peace campaigners celebrated yesterday after knitting past the half-way mark of a seven-mile woollen scarf that will stretch between two nuclear weapons factories.

Four miles of the scarf have been completed, with sections going on show at peace events.

The finished scarf will be unfurled to link Aldermaston and Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishments in Berkshire on August 9, the anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki in Japan.

The knitwear is the idea of artist Jaine Rose from Stroud in Gloucestershire, of the Wool Against Weapons group.

“It will be one big old woolly protest against the UK’s ongoing involvement with nuclear weapons, and the money our government is intending to spend in 2016,” Ms Rose said.

Volunteer knitters in their hundreds responded across Britain and and the world, including Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament members and Quakers.

After the protest the scarf will be turned into blankets for hospices, emergency areas and war zones.