A specialist exercise activity for those living with Long Covid or whose health has deteriorated during Covid with specialist instructors from Posability. On Tuesdays 2.30-3.30pm at the Recreation Ground Community Room starting on 5th October.
For information and to register please contact Christina on 07565 598193
If you would like help with transport please contact Paul 07772 437789 or email info@hifriends.org.uk
Behind closed doors, the village’s knitters, stitchers, crocheters and spinners have been busy throughout the pandemic, and now they’re urging others to get crafty. Janet Hathiramani shares a new opportunity for post-lockdown creativity.
How was lockdown for you? Everyone has a story to tell. On the one hand there have been heart-warming tales of residents, community groups and local businesses finding ways of adapting to the ‘new normal’ and supporting each other through the long dark days. Some people have taken the down-time to reassess their lives and found the courage to branch out in brave new directions. Others have taken up new hobbies, started volunteering, made new friends or discovered a new appreciation of our wonderful village, its wildlife and its heritage.
But for many, the novelty of Zooming, baking sourdough bread and going to work in our pyjamas was soon outweighed by the exhaustion of home schooling and the loneliness of separation. For some it has been a deeply distressing time: businesses that had to close, workers who lost their income, and grieving families who lost loved ones.
To give the village a release-valve for the emotions that have built up over the past 18 months and an opportunity to start looking forward, Histon & Impington’s community of stitchers, crocheters, spinners and knitters has come up with a creative outlet that will give all of us the chance to give visual expression to some of the things that are hardest to put into words.
H I Lockdown Reflections is the chance for residents, both adults and children, to reflect on their own lockdown life and create a postcard or two to share some part of their experiences with our community. Drawing, writing, stitching, painting, poetry, photography, digital art, photography, collage, embroidery, printmaking – any media at all can be used, and the postcards will be exhibited in the foyer at the St Andrew’s Centre from Monday 25th to Friday 29th October.
Reflecting and creating
This opportunity is being organised by one of the village’s newest community groups – the creative group HI Fibrecrafters. The group was set up in February 2020, just before the pandemic closed us all down. The brainchild of Jane Barrett and Elaine Farrell, it has proved to be an invaluable link between the village’s textile makers – most of whom are hidden behind closed doors, modestly creating amazing work in their own homes.
Janet Hathiramani, a member of HI Fibrecrafters, explained: “The plan was for villagers to bring their fibre works-in-progress to regular meet ups, work on them, share skills and ideas. The first meet-up saw spinners, crocheters and knitters sharing tips and techniques and the group has some expert stitchers too.
“After just one further meet-up, lockdown 1 struck and the group has met via occasional Zoom meetings since then. But we weren’t idle. A number of us turned our needles, and our sewing machines, towards helping out by making scrubs and scrubs bags for the NHS, and making masks.”
The group is hoping that local residents – especially those who have been creating art, crafts and literary work during the pandemic, or have vowed to do so when it’s over – will now allow themselves a little time to process their post-lockdown in a creative way. Janet said: “We hope people will find a little time and space to create their postcards and then build on the positives they identify. Losing oneself in creativity can be a cathartic experience and I think the real value of the event will come from their reflecting and creating. It’s an opportunity for people to reflect on their own experiences of the lockdowns, to perhaps assist them to ‘put away’ the worst of those memories and to recall the many surprising positives.
“But there is value too in sharing our work with others and we are hoping for a wide audience at the exhibition – particularly as it will be half term week giving an opportunity for the younger members of our community to come along.”
“We’re also hoping to restart the HI Fibrecrafters in-person meet-ups soon and would love all those creative people in the village to join us – to share ideas, tips, and tea and friendship. Anyone interested in joining us can find meet up or Zoom details on the Facebook group HI Fibrecrafters.”
To take part in the H I Lockdown Reflections:
Belonging to a choir and singing together is an activity at the heart of village life, with many residents valuing the camaraderie of belonging or attending regular concerts. Eddy Moore reports on the impact of the pandemic on this vital source of pleasure for so many.
Covid 19 has brought to a standstill the usual activities of Histon & Impington’s local choirs, which have been unable to meet and rehearse normally since March 2020. As Lynne Purchase, of Choir 2000 told HI HUB: “The last time that the Choir ‘met’ in person was a rather melancholy evening returning scores to librarians at Histon Baptist Church.”
The Zoom year
Nevertheless, choir members were determined to keep things ticking over during the interminable weeks of lockdown and turned to Zoom. Sue Lee, Chair of the Impingtones, explained how they started to explore the use of technology: “We had our first Zoom choir session on 1st April 2020 and tentatively explored how this might work for us. Just seeing each other on screen and the infectious enthusiasm of our choir leader, Bridget Hardy, was uplifting and our weekly Zoom choir quickly became part of our ‘new normal’.”
Unlike online meetings the use of Zoom for a large choir is not at all straightforward. Lynne Purchase explained: “We knew at the outset that Zoom wouldn’t allow us to ‘sing together’ in real-time; we had to have everyone with microphone ‘off’ to avoid a complete cacophany. When singing in a choir it is not just your voice; you hear others around you in your section singing one part, you watch the conductor for tempo and direction; you hear other sections in the choir and the soloists and accompanist/orchestra.
“In the absence of that support, it’s a bit daunting to sing on your own from a sheet of music with no-one else around you, even in the privacy of your own home!”
The Impingtones had to overcome the same obstacles: “Taking part in a choir over Zoom isn’t without it’s challenges, not least because you are singing on your own; but most importantly, it enabled us to keep on singing. We knew how important our singing community is to our members and we desperately felt a need to be there for them and to stay connected. We’ve had loyal support from our members and this has meant that we’re still here and looking forward to the next chapter.”
Ten Sing Cambridge, a youth group offers a variety of creative and performing arts activities from singing and music, to dance and drama. They too moved to online meetings enabling their members to keep in touch.
One Impingtones member, Sarah Strickland, summed up the value of online connections: “I’ve been part of this lovely, local choir for over five years. For me, continuing via Zoom has maintained that sense of connection, so that we’re ready to pick up where we left off 18 months ago”.
Moving outdoors
In a resourceful move, some choirs moved outside when the Covid restrictions permitted only outdoor singing.
The last live performance by Choir 2000 was a programme of festive music performed socially distanced on the Green in December. They were also able to sing together in the gardens of Histon Manor and were grateful for the support of Mrs Katherine Mann for allowing the choir to meet there.
The Impingtones met up at the Histon & Impington Community Orchard in July: “What a joy it was to be able to sing together!”, said Sue Lee. “We must admit, the singing wasn’t great at first but we quickly got used to socially distanced singing and over a few weeks regained our confidence in the beautifully calm and inspiring space among the apple trees.”
Return to ‘normal’
As the months went by and parts of lockdown eased, hopes of returning to normal for choirs were dashed by guidance issued by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It was only after Step 4 on July 19th that restrictions were fully lifted.
Both Choir 2000 and The Impingtones will be restarting in the autumn. Sue is delighted The Impingtones will be moving to a new venue from September, singing in the hall at the new Park Primary School on Wednesday evenings. “The school has agreed to us hiring this lovely space and the plan is to return to in-person singing, with much work going on in the background by a committed and enthusiastic committee to ensure we can be as Covid safe as possible. We are determined to make it happen.”
Choir 2000 are also proceeding cautiously and will restart rehearsals at Histon Baptist Church in October. Lynne Purchase explained: “These will probably be somewhat different to how rehearsals were previously; we now, for instance, have to factor in new processes such as ‘ventilation breaks’ into our schedule for each evening.
“Until October, we continue to work on our repertoire with rehearsals held outside, taking advantage of the good weather and long summer evenings. It’s so good to see familiar faces and be able to raise our voices together again, at last. We hope that we will be able to organise a December concert performance of Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria’ together with some of our lockdown repertoire and some carols. A cheerful programme after so many months away.”
Vaccination rates in the village have fallen behind South Cambridgeshire as a whole and health authorities are encouraging people to take advantage of walk-in vaccination clinics to win the race against the virus spreading further.
The number of Covid cases is on the rise again in Histon & Impington, with a four-fold increase in the past week. From just 8 new cases a week ago, the number for the seven days to July 15 has risen to 31.
Although the number of cases being reported in the village (256 per 100,000) is currently still below the national average (440 per 100,000), the proportion of residents who have had first and second vaccinations is also lower, meaning more potential for the virus to spread.
Vaccination urgency
Only 81.4% of adults in Histon & Impington have received a first jab by 19th July – compared with 85.8% for all of South Cambridgeshire and 88% for the UK as a whole.
61.5% in the village have now had two jabs, but this too is lower than the South Cambs average of 67.4% and the national average of 68.8%
To make it more convenient for people to take up the jab and slow the rate of further infections, the NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group has published details of local walk-in vaccination clinics. These include:
Also, lateral flow tests will remain free from the village pharmacies at least for the rest of July.
To support the community during this ‘third wave’, the HICOVID19 helpline is still available on 01223 320420 and the team of street coordinators can still arrange help for those who need it.
With this week’s Government announcement that the 21st June easing of restrictions is delayed, our Feast Committee has been faced with having to re-evaluate some of its major events. Amanda Borrill reports…
Feast week 2021 runs from 3rd to 11th July and, as in previous years, much work has gone on behind the scenes scheduling a series of events aimed to entertain and bring together the whole community. Steve Cox, Feast Committee Chair, tells more:
“In January, we were trying to be as positive as possible in planning Feast Week events. We really wanted Feast Week to be an ‘event’ but also as normal as possible and involving the community. The primary aim was not to raise lots of money but to raise enough to cover costs, to support our beneficiaries and to provide a taste of normality. Therefore, we are all incredibly disappointed that some events have been cancelled, but we don’t want to risk the health of the population of our villages or the financial situation of the Feast. We ask you please to bear with us this week as we look at the full possibilities of re-scheduling events or running some under present restrictions”.
Community collaboration
It is very clear from talking to Steve that the focus this year has been very much on community collaboration. Behind the scenes is a team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers along with HI Friends who have been working hard to create a varied programme of events and a comprehensive list of what is planned is due to be published next week by Histon & Impington Parish Council in their free and village-wide distributed HisImp News.
Steve continues:
“We had planned that as many events as possible would be run under Step 3 of the Government’s roadmap out of COVID, but hoped, for Feast Week, we would be in Step 4. The announcement by the Government on Monday was not unexpected but makes the organisation (and therefore financial risk) of the larger music events much more complicated. The higher rate of transmission of the Delta variant is also a concern which prompted the Feast team to re-think some planned events. The sad fact is that we don’t want to risk transmission of the virus at crowd based events where managing social distancing is very hard”.
The, sadly unavoidable, casualties are listed below although the team is optimistic that these can be rescheduled for later in the year.
Cancelled:
Colin Myles, organiser of planned live gig Riot on the Rec, told us:
“Cancelling events is something that nobody wants to do, especially at this time when people are wanting to get back to some kind of normality. It is always a really tough call but with rising cases and the extended lockdown making some of the logistics difficult we didn’t want to put attendees, or the HI Friends charity at risk.”
All other events for Feast Week are still under review and it is hoped that, in line with social distancing guidelines, it might still be possible to run the Feast Market on Saturday 10th July and the Explorer Society Piano Concert on Thursday 8th July.
Remaining positive
Steve is keen that we all remain focused on the positives – of which there are many – and adds:
“Not everything is cancelled and next week’s HisImp News will be publishing the full list of planned events. You can also get more information on what is lined up via the 2021 Feast website, here“.
This year also sees launch of The Feast Loyalty Card (see below). This new initiative aims to get people visiting our local businesses with the chance of winning a prize. Further details can be found on the Feast website and will also be in HisImp News.
Also planned is a range of online talks and initiatives – all to be listed in the HisImp news and HI HUB What’s On.
We finish with a final thank you from Steve who is immensely grateful for all the support received and says: “This year the efforts of the committee have been tremendous and I thank all of them for getting us to where we are today”.
Remember to also check HI HUB What’s On for up-to-date information on all local events.