A museum in Bedford has asked local residents to share their coronavirus lockdown experiences for a social history project.
The Higgins Bedford has issued the call to individuals, families, community groups, volunteers and work colleagues.
Perhaps you are keeping a journal or taking photographs of your daily exercise and sharing to social media?
Are you running a local business to support local people day to day, or creating a rainbow artwork for your front windows? Have you volunteered to be part of a community initiative to support those self-isolating or our key workers?
Are you a key worker facing the busiest time of your working life?
Although we are all in the midst of it now, one day this pandemic will be history. The full impact of the COVID-19 crisis will be important to document and evaluate for future generations looking back at this historic event.
The Higgins & Bedfordshire Archives would like to recognise all the varied and different contributions that are specific to our local area during this crisis, to be a repository for those stories and items for future generations as a tribute and record of life during the crisis.
The Bedford Independent is submitting our series of Lockdown Lives stories, which detail Bedfordians’ experiences of local life during the pandemic.
Read: Lockdown life: Bank holiday photos show a deserted Bedford
If you have a story, photographs, video, poetry, letters, journals, artworks, objects or other contribution related to your own response to the Covid19 crisis, please email Lydia Saul, Keeper of Social History at The Higgins Bedford at Lydia.Saul@bedford.gov.uk for further information.
Your suggestions and offers will be placed onto a potential list of COVID-19 collection items.
The teams at The Higgins Bedford & Bedfordshire Archives will consider them for acquisition into the collections following the end of the COVID-19 crisis and they will get in touch with you for further information.
Councillor Doug McMurdo, Portfolio Holder for Leisure & Culture, said, “These are unprecedented and very challenging times. Despite this many inspiring stories are being created.
“At the Higgins Bedford we want to capture these stories and all the good things happening, whilst acknowledging these are also overshadowed by sadder matters.
“These stories will then form an important part of our social history, there for us all and future generations to look back on.
“Thank you in advance for your help, our priority at the moment is for everyone to stay home, stay safe and stay well.”
