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www.ilkestonlife.com ILKESTON LIFE November 2021 19
Column
THE VIRUS

AND THE

VILLAGE

By Paul
Harvey

Why I’ve spent over a year that future generations in Dale, simply because every photograph taking a walk and getting out into of the village my personal escape
photographing my neigh- possibly living in our houses or us- would look similar, but just in nature”. was to regularly go and photo-
bours, their pets...and a tree. ing buildings they recognise from time I realised I was in danger Could there have been a worse graph this remarkable tree and in
Once I’d got over the shock of Bo- my images, will see the faces and of making a huge mistake. I was time to start concreting over hun- the process take comfort in the
thought that with a little bit of luck
dreds of acres of already fragile
photographing real life in lock-
character of today’s residents who
ris announcing the first lockdown lived through and fortunately sur- down and pets had become an and hard pressed green belt? and open fields to walk through, in
I quickly realised we were in un- vived the Covid pandemic. Better even bigger part of people’s lives, Could our planners really be that the end everything usually returns
chartered waters, it was something still in the future should some to leave them out would in effect far out of step with modern trends to normal.
that had never happened before similar event occur then maybe be airbrushing history. I just didn’t and medical science, let alone the
and hopefully would never happen looking at us with our laughable have the right to do that and so it wishes of local people? The mental health of future
again. But like other unique events technology and peculiar way of was that dozens of reluctant mog- I currently have a petition signed generations
in history I also realised it would dressing, they may think well, if gies, doggies and even a couple of by 1,680 residents of Erewash This is the first time anyone has
be the small everyday details that that lot managed to grin and sur- sheep were persuaded to reluctant- calling for a ban on any plan that seen these images - one for each of
would be the first to be lost, and vive then maybe we can too. ly and grumpily pose with their requires building in the green belt. the seasons. I hope you find them
in years to come people of future owners for the camera. Beyond those I know there are and this wonderful tree and its
generations will probably wonder From quizzes to carol singing thousands and thousands more surrounding landscape as comfort-
what life was like back then. What Over the eighteen months or so A lifeline snatched away who are equally outraged by the ing and inspiring as I do. As well
exactly was lockdown and how did of photographing individuals and But the most telling thing of all idea of burying the heritage of as a timely reminder that whatever
we cope trying to dodge the virus families, I was privileged to get a was the amount of visitors who future generations beneath layers the reason, giving up our precious
given the ‘primitive’ conditions of unique insight into many everyday came on even the foulest, coldest, of brick and concrete. green space for short-term gain
2020. It was then I realised that as events that provide a clue as to the most rain swept days. Every layby should never be an option.
a photographer I was in an ideal true character of our community and pull-in around the village Why we turn to nature I will be presenting my petition to
position to document life here in and thereby glimpse our national was choked with vehicles, while Earlier I mentioned the uncanny a full meeting of Erewash Bor-
my own community, recording character - the small things that lines of socially distanced walkers way many of us are drawn to ough Council at Long Eaton Town
who lived here, where each family history books rarely show. For trudged along every footpath and nature and the countryside in times Hall 7.00pm on Thursday the 28th
lived, what we did to escape infec- example a socially distanced street bridle way. It was as if instinc- of crisis and I think I finally under- of October. I just hope they fully
tion, and what we all looked like. party sounds like a huge contra- tively people were drawn to find stand why – at least in part. comprehend the enormity of the
Put another way, what did simple diction early in a pandemic, but the peace, tranquillity and reas- In times of uncertainty I believe decision they make.
everyday life in Dale Abbey look determined that nothing should surance of nature and its green we instinctively seek out the famil- While the pandemic may be in
like during the pandemic? prevent the commemoration of open spaces. Almost unbelievably iar, comforting, dependable things the rear view mirror there’s no
A similar village those who died in war, on a rare and with breathtaking stupidity it we can trust. Maybe those asso- doubt that it’s still tailgating us
In 1665 Eyam a similar sized scorching afternoon in May 2020, was then, right at the peak of the ciated with our childhood, maybe in the outside lane with the grim
VJ day was movingly and safely
because other than the last century
pandemic that plans were revised
reaper hunched over the wheel and
village in Derbyshire was in- celebrated in Dale. that would see building take place or so, for thousands of years we all laughing manically at our pathet-
fected by the plague that caused The Sunday night pub quiz still in the Erewash green belt, 6,680 lived in rural communities and cer- ic efforts to shake him off. This
the death of 250 of the village’s went ahead but ‘virtually’ by houses on what had for decades tainly much closer nature. Perhaps time we were lucky, next time
800 or so inhabitants. There are Zoom, attracting those from the been a protected area completely it is that connection that somehow maybe not so, and when we next
written accounts of course but US, Europe, and even as far away off limits for building. resonates within our basic DNA turn to the green open spaces for
with photography still a couple as Tattle Hill and Stanton-by-Dale. If the pandemic taught us anything and draws us back to our familiar comfort, I doubt that the sight of
of hundred years away there’s no An orderly and socially distanced it’s that green open spaces and the rural origins in times of danger 6,680 houses will do much to calm
visual record of the residents, who queue to buy a meal and a much tranquillity of the countryside is and crisis. our fears… or help safeguard the
lived there and what everyday life anticipated jug of beer at the back far more essential to our mental sanity of future generations.
was like during the terrible years door of the pub was an opportunity and physical well-being than any- Reassured by a single tree
of the plague. to call a brief greeting to neigh- one had previously realised. Many years ago on a hill over- PHOTOS: Spring, Summer, Autumn
So it was that in spring 2020 I bours who at that stage we rarely looking Dale Abbey I noticed a and Winter: a year of the pandemic
began a project that lasted from saw. A petition reveals the truth tree – a solitary oak. How old it is as seen in a single tree.
March of that year to July 2021. Perhaps most memorable of all We are told that government hous- I have no idea, certainly 300 years
Obviously I couldn’t go into was a carol service that filled the ing figures leave the local author- probably more. It would already
people’s houses and had to stay at village street on a bitterly cold ity with no choice other than to have been mature by the time Nel-
least 2 meters away my subjects, Christmas Eve in 2020. The shiv- sacrifice huge swathes of our green son fought the battle of Trafalgar
so for those patient souls who ering crowd - all wearing masks belt in order to…wait for it… save and very much as it is now during
volunteered I opted to photograph and gathered in family groups – the rest of it from development. two world wars. I call it the Dale
them from a safe distance and seemed to appear from nowhere That is complete rubbish, it’s what Sentinel because, from its isolated
usually in front of their respective and by far exceeded the numbers Ilkeston folk would call a cop out spot on the hillside it seems to
houses. of any previous years. and reveals a local authority only keep watch over the village.
Why photographs improve How pets made a difference too keen to roll over and do the Walking the dog I pass it most
with age What I photographed and wit- bidding of those calling the tune days and during the pandemic it
struck me how for hundreds of
down in London. The people of
The strange thing about photo- nessed during my days recording Erewash elected their councillors years it has witnessed the relative-
graphy is that a very ordinary life thorough the pandemic clearly to represent their views, not those ly brief lives of generation after
picture you take today is still very revealed people’s priorities once of distant faceless bureaucrats, and generation of local people and
ordinary tomorrow, next week the trivia had been stripped away, standing up to the distant policy visitors alike as they pass by, each
and probably next year. However and I can’t believe that our com- makers is all part of the job. with their unique collection of
after a few years and depending on munity can be different to many An organization called the Educa- hopes, fears and troubles. During Kind bin men give
what changes have occurred, by others around the country. tion Executive recently surveyed the pandemic I found this very Freddie a treat
then the picture may be moderate- Pets played a massive part in how 2,000 people on the effects of reassuring, the fact that other than A big thank you to our refuse
ly interesting, in fifty years it will we all coped with separation and lockdown. The result showed that changing with the seasons the collectors who have made Freddie’s
be fascinating, and in a hundred isolation. As a measure of that, nearly 47% of them suffered in tree, just like the rest of nature day by bringing him a colouring
years time probably one of the without a single exception every some way from the mental effects remains the most consistent force book, pens and a pencil case.
most precious things in anyone’s family that had a pet insisted that of the associated stress. They of all. I think we all found ways Every time they come they always
possession. So hopefully, and long their animal must appear with advise, “In times of darkness, we of dealing with lockdown and the make time for Fred who is fascinat-
after I’ve gone to the big photo them in the photograph. My first must try to look for the light. That ever-present threat of the virus. ed by their bin lorry.
exhibition in the sky, my hope is reaction was to try and avoid that, might be something as simple as Other than recording the events Claire Rachel Waterall