Carry On Langport!: A look back at 'that' year...

A brief look back at 2020 through the eyes of Carry On Langport!

This photograph was taken on December 31st 2019...the last 'Langport afternoon' of the decade.

If only we'd known what was coming.

We all knew something was up a few weeks before the first lockdown of March 23rd when the shelves started emptying at Langport Tesco.

This taken on the 16th:

Pasta, loo roll, anti-bac handsoap and all sorts of other things soon began to run out too...causing a major family fall-out between these two local brothers....

then lockdown happened and within days, the infamous one-way system was introduced at the Langport supermarket. It was a new world as we were all forced to walk slowly down aisles many of us had never been down before...whilst obeying the floor stickers dotted around the store...

The pubs closed too...

the Halfway House at Pitney even had to change its front garden umbrellas...

within days the Black Swan - and later the Langport Arms - launched highly successful takeaway services:

and with shops, work places and schools closed - here in sleepy Langport it was harder than ever to remember what day it was.

So the town council quickly redesigned the town clock to help us all out [but still forgot to finish painting the beam]

as the country's hospitals became overwhelmed with covid patients, Langporters joined in the national Thursday night claps for the NHS....this filmed behind Cheapside and North Street on April 16th: [most of the noise coming from the Hill!]

and then these guys sprung into action providing a lifeline to dozens of local households:

Sterling work and still going on today!

and as if being stuck at home wasn't bad enough already, Network Rail came and dug up the railway embankment....banging gigantic steel piles into the ground day and night for months on end:

The work disturbed rare cranes which were forced to upsticks and relocate:

Huge public events were cancelled including celebrations to mark the 75th anniversary of VE day. The Langport Arms had to abandon its festivities in the ballroom where Langport's actual original VE night took place....the 1940s band etc all had to be cancelled.

But the Hanging Gallery did us proud with a fine display projected on to the chapel that night:

Then summer came and so did the crowds....to Cocklemoor....or was it Regent's Park? The place was suddenly on everyone's radar:

A beautiful summer, with the odd wet weekend thrown in - this taken on July 26th:

Despite the summer frolics though, we were all encouraged not to let our guard down and Langport library had this government guide delivered free to every household in the area:

Eventually, at the end of summer, the first lockdown easing happened and some pubs could reopen again....but with a new alert system in place plus many new rules and regulations: