Lockdown Gallery

In February 2020 newsreaders began to report on a new, highly infectious and sometimes deadly disease - Coronavirus - that was sweeping through China at an alarming rate.

In March, as the infection reached Europe, the Town Council began to take large volumes of calls from people asking for help and it soon became clear that our small team wouldn't be able to do it alone.

On 13 March we put out a call for volunteers who might be able to help their more vulnerable neighbours and incredibly more than 300 of you stepped forward to help.  Soon they were organised into neighbourhood groups and were out and about dropping contact cards through letter boxes and the Manton Residents Association set up a village support group too. Many residents called us for help later having thrown the cards away, not realising the significance of what was unfolding, but we made sure they were all put in touch with a volunteer.  

Meanwhile, there were scenes of panic buying in supermarkets...  The TV news showed people fighting over toilet rolls and other staples such as fresh fruit and veg, bread, canned goods, flour and pasta quickly disappeared from shelves.  Shops introduced limits on the number of items people could buy along with priorty shopping hours for the elderly and - a new phrase - key workers.  Local shops - e.g. Costcutter, Frasers Budgens, Mace and OneStop - became a lifeline for many and their staff were hailed as heroes by grateful customers. We all became experts at hand-washing and distillers turned their production lines over to making hand sanitiser.

To protect our staff in early March we closed our offices to walk-in visitors and many shops and cafes closed voluntarily.