As a response to the current pandemic, members of the Bude community have set up a social history project centred around the town and the wider North Cornish community.

Initiated by Clair Roberts, who runs The Kitchen Front in Bude and organised and supported by two teachers at Budehaven Community School, Harry Pearce and Hilary Curtis, Project Lock Down Diaries Covid-19 2020 has become an online hub for many people of the town.

Launched before Easter, Project Lock Down Diaries poses a daily question to elicit people’s experiences.

It invites people in Bude and outlying villages to record their thoughts, concerns, fears, observations, joy and sadness.

Some elderly citizens have been invited to reflect on their own personal history, those who had relatives who lived through WW2 for example, and how they feel about the contemporary threat of the Coronavirus.

“We wanted to reach as many people in our community as possible to record their feelings in this unprecedented situation,” said the Project team. “Imagine being able to look back on these diaries, poems and reflections in fifty years time.”

Like schools all over the country, Budehaven Community School officially closed its doors on Friday, March 27 with pupils encouraged to access resources and assignments online via the school’s internet portal, ‘Show My Homework.’

When the new term begins, pupils will be encouraged to participate in this project, providing the much-needed voice of the younger generation. For many pupils, especially those in Year 6, 11 and 13, the pandemic has hijacked rites of passage, negating exciting transitions in young people’s lives.

Pupils will be invited to share their experiences via the school website, with the technical help of Stu Knowler and the resources team, who will provide ongoing ICT support for students and staff who want to contribute to the Project Lock Down Diaries.

The wider North Cornwall community has also been asked to contribute to this unique project.

Baroness Judith Jolly, a member of the House of Lords, who is based in Launceston, is highly supportive of the project. She said: “I’m delighted to contribute to this excellent social history project.

“We are so lucky to have social media to keep our records safe. I remember the big flu epidemic in 1957 when I was a child, but can find no record of how individuals, families or communities managed.

“This project will give future social historians the opportunity to see how we coped with COVID-19.”

Ian Saltern, a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedh who lives in Stratton commented: “This is an excellent project from this team — future generations will be the beneficiaries of the thoughts and feelings recorded by those in our community during this unprecedented time.

“It will create a candid, first-hand record of how people coped, which will be invaluable in years to come. I look forward to seeing our community contributing to such an important moment in history.”

The project is an immediate, often cathartic experience for those posting their personal observations online each day.

As the Project Lock Down team note: “We have people sharing their fears, anxieties, faith, friendship and how they are coping each day. Sometimes it is a small paragraph that is so poignant, so personal.

“The next day could be a piece from local frontline key workers in Cornwall hospitals and care homes who have heart-wrenching experiences to share.”

The project has noted how local shopkeepers in the town have responded with innovative ways to deliver and satisfy their customer base; how the community has been supportive and compassionate for those less fortunate is evident; how teachers and parents navigate the ‘new normal’ of online lessons and await the next half-term with trepidation; and the many university students who have returned home to Bude, unsettled, concerned, their educational settings abruptly closed and emptied.

The Project Lock Down team added: “Reading their comments has been illuminating; their resilience is clear but disappointment tangible.

“We hope this ongoing project will be part of our town and county’s historical heritage and inform our community for many years to come.

“As we inch forward in the next months, we will undoubtedly see a change in the diaries and reflections as society continues adjusting.”

For more information visit their Facebook page www.facebook.com/groups/213839626505832/