This Scrap Book is being produced as a pictorial record of what 2020 has been like for us all as a small rural community living through a pandemic. Some explanations for each section will be in place to ensure context is recognised for those of us looking at the pictures of what we have lived through and also to help those who look at how our lives were affected when looking at this Scrap Book in the years to come. So we hope that the summaries provided will allow for the majority of pictures to speak for themselves and tell their own stories.
This has been the year of the COVID-19 virus and the pandemic and much of the year has been in lockdown or with many restrictions on our lives and how we could or could not meet up with each other. This story of our village needed to be recorded for ourselves and those who follow us.
A big thank you to Carol Simms and her family, to the family of Audrey Gatward and the many friends of Ivy Woodford for allowing this book to be dedicated to their memory.
We also thank the relatives of Sheila Riley, Colin Clarke, Simon Cowman and Revd Anthony Wibberley for allowing us to remember them in this Scrap Book as well.
New words for many of us in 2020 have been pandemic, COVID-19, lockdown, furlough, social distancing, face mask, sanitising, tier 1, 2, 3, and 4. Our lives have changed so much. By 31st December 2020, 73,512 people had died in the UK of COVID-19, 964 alone on 31st December itself. Our National Health Service (NHS) has been at breaking point and restrictions have been in place to save as many lives as possible, to protect ourselves and of course the NHS. Despite this huge and tragic loss of life, if as a nation we had done nothing then numbers who would have died would have been far worse than the appalling figure that the UK had in 2020. Now we have a vaccine and and we are able to return to a new normal in 2021.
Thank you so much to Antonia Doyle & Vic Allsop for their support in compiling the Scrap Book, to Hoby with Rotherby Parish Council for funding the compilation work and to Hoby District Church Council for working on this. The largest thanks are to the people of Hoby, who have demonstrated yet again what a great place this is to live and during these difficult times that if we had to be anywhere, the best place was to be here at home in Hoby.
So please enjoy this Scrap Book and perhaps with moments of sadness we can reflect on what a strong community we are and have continued to be during 2020.
Click on image to enlarge and cycle through all the year
Click on image to enlarge and cycle through all the year
