A Norfolk market town's museum is redoubling its efforts to build an archive of residents' experiences during the coronavirus pandemic – and has joined forces with a Norwich college student in order to do so.
Wymondham Heritage Museum wants people who live in and around the town to tell their stories, so they can collate them for future generations to learn about what life was like in this period of history.
Committee members have been working on the project while the museum has been closed. It decided to axe its entire season in 2020, but hopes to salvage at least some of 2021 and is preparing for when it might be able to open its doors again.
Last year this project was launched to collect lockdown stories, and now the museum is working with Norwich City College media studies student Olive Carrick.
She said: "“I’m working with Wymondham Heritage Museum to create a short film documenting peoples experiences of lockdown from an honest and open perspective. We are witnessing history in the making and living in a key time which will be talked and learnt for centuries to come.
"Everything from mental health decline and isolation to home schooling kids and cutting the families hair, to finding hobbies and skills which you would have never had the time for pre-Covid."
Among those who have already shared their stories is Oli Sparrow, who told how his family celebrated his daughter’s first birthday in the garden with her grandparents and a glass of socially-distanced champagne – “Bubbly in the bubble” as he described it.
And Christine Watts shared how she joined an army of volunteers making scrubs to support the NHS, hospitals, GP surgeries and care homes.
Publicity manager Neil Haverson said: "The plan is to build an archive to record how people dealt with all the issues they faced and provide material for future displays in the museum."
• If you live in or near Wymondham, and you have a story to tell about your experiences during the coronavirus pandemic, please email whm.info@wymondhamheritagemuseum.co.uk.
• Alternatively, you can write to Wymondham Heritage Museum, 10 The Bridewell, Norwich Road, Wymondham, NR18 0NS.
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