Looking back, it seems unreal and also it is difficult to believe that five years have elapsed since it happened. But this week marks the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the first Covid lockdown back in 2020. This coming Sunday (23rd March) will be five years exactly since the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, came on television and told us all to 'stay at home'.

This was a global event but Bishop Monkton was affected just like everywhere else. Everyone's experience will have been different. For some people in the village, the pandemic meant illness and loss. For others, it meant economic hardship. For everyone it meant disruption and restrictions.

There were upsides as well. Community spirit was very evident here. People helped their neighbours with food and medicine deliveries; various community actvities including pub quizzes and Singing for Fun, took place on Zoom. For those who stayed well and didn't have financial worries, the first lockdown (mainly accompanied by beautiful Spring weather) was a chance to slow down and enjoy a break.

Five years on, the longer-term impact of Covid is still being debated with different views about the implications on the economy, people's wellbeing and the education and development of children, for example.

'Bishop Monkton Today' and the Bishop Monkton Local History Group worked together during 2020 and 2021 to keep a record in words and pictures of how our village lived through the pandemic. An exhibition was staged in the summer of 2021 in the Village Hall and the online version is still available as a reminder of one of the strangest periods most of us will have ever lived through.

You can access the 'Images of Isolation' online exhibition here.