

Nearly 2,000 teddy bears that were laid among 300,000 bouquets of flowers in St Ann’s Square, Manchester, in the days after the arena bombing are to be given new homes.

Manchester city council said on Wednesday that the soft toys would be distributed to children across Greater Manchester, having been repaired and spruced up by a team of volunteers.

The teddy bears were removed from the bed of tributes by more than 100 volunteers. The Manchester-based shoe-repairers Timpson offered to store the bears and dry them out.

Once they had been dried enough so they could be properly handled and sorted, the bears were then washed and repaired where necessary by an army of Women’s Institute members from branches across Greater Manchester.

Volunteers from the University of Manchester took individual photographs of the soft toys for an archive of everything related to the atrocity, in which 22 people were killed and 250 others injured when a Manchester-born suicide bomber detonated his rucksack at the end of an Ariana Grande concert.

Council officials said the spruced-up teddies would be distributed to children through Greater Manchester charities including Wood Street Mission and the Toy Appeal, and also by Bearly Loved and the Teddy Trust, which work internationally.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Crowds look at floral tributes after a minute’s silence in St Ann’s Square, Manchester, in May. Photograph: Ben Birchall/PA

Judith Suckling, vice-president of Old Trafford Wonder Women WI, one of the branches involved in providing some much-needed TLC to the bears after they were removed from the square, said: “As an organisation we really wanted to do anything we could to help after the bomb and were honoured to be asked to help with the bears.

“It was very moving for all of us, knowing the bears’ history and why they had been left on the square, and then wanting to do our own bit to clean them and give them a future – to restore them back to being bears of happiness again for another child, instead of sadness.”

Most of the floral tributes were taken to Wythenshawe Park, in the south of the city, where the wrapping was removed by volunteers after any messages attached to them had been carefully removed, and saved to be added to the archive.

Bouquets past their best were composted and used in the city centre and in other local communities to support green spaces, the council said.

More than 600 potted plants were also donated and many of these were planted around the city centre, including in planters at the cathedral and Manchester Art Gallery. The rest were either donated to residential care homes, offered to In Bloom groups, or planted in Wythenshawe Park.

Several hundred paper items were also left on St Ann’s Square, including cards left with flowers. Every scrap of paper left in tribute was saved and taken to restoration specialists for freeze-drying and cleaning as another important part of the archive being created.

Officials said this work was carried out free of charge by Harwell Restoration, based in Oxfordshire, which drafted in extra people to help work through the material quickly to ensure as much as possible was saved.

Volunteers also picked several hundred candles from the square that are currently in storage; those with personal messages or which are symbolic will be transferred into the archive, along with around 1,000 balloons and other mementoes.

Sue Murphy, the deputy leader of Manchester city council, said: “We’re determined this horrific event that has both devastated and touched the lives of so many people shall not be forgotten, and nor will those who died or were injured.

“The amount of love and feeling invested in each and every one of the teddies and other tributes left on St Ann’s Square could be felt by everyone who saw them, and absolutely no one could have failed to have been moved by them.

“Whilst we will never forget what has happened, it’s important that we also start to look towards the future. Moving on this huge family of teddies that were left with such feeling and amongst much sadness on St Ann’s Square for other children now to enjoy and to cherish is a big part of this.”