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An insight in to St. Ives during lockdown..
With Father's Day just around the corner we asked a very important person to do a guest blog post for us... Our Dad.
A local to St. Ives for the last 40 years after coming to St. Ives on a family holiday aged 18 and never returning home. My dads parents (my grandparents) sent a removal van to the house who packed everything up for them and dropped it to their new home, they never returned to Paisley. Our parents are lucky enough to live on the harbour front in St. Ives and have seen first hand lock down in the town... Here is a lowdown from our Dad...
Weird St.Ives Set To Continue For Fathers Day
Come Father’s Day on the 21st the whole country will have been under movement restrictions for over 90 days. Here in St.Ives this has created an unprecedented atmosphere best summed up by the word “weird”. Coming out of winter the town usually starts to come alive approaching Easter. Businesses start to refurbish their units, decorators and tradesmen strive to meet their clients deadlines for an Easter influx. But that never materialised. Due to the extremely strict adherence to government guidelines the whole town went into shutdown creating a “weird” atmosphere.
“Weird” in the sense that even on the best weather days the harbour and beaches were deserted. To stand on the island and look along Porthmeor and see absolutely no one, not even a dog walker, enjoying such a beautiful day was “weird”. Easter Sunday was all that any local trader could of wished for in normal times, but this year locals and tourists alike were no where to be seen. On walks out we kept bumping into (not physically!!) the same faces. Some were acquaintances others locals who would not normally venture “down along”. Businesses were 95% closed some never to open up again. Vital shops remained open. Fore st Deli, Norway Stores, Wharf Post Office, the Co Op, and Harveys butchers did, and continue to do, a magnificent job. A job that should not be forgotten. A shopping lesson learned.
“Weird” is probably the wrong word to described the physical appearance of St.Ives through this, but it has been ‘Weirdly Magnificent”. Particularly through May the sun shone, the sea was as clear as we have ever seen, this accompanied with the special St.Ives light, lack of traffic, seagulls actually feeding at sea, made St.Ives such a special place to be surviving covid19.
‘Weird” was also how we all became so protective of our town and community. Strange faces got extra long disapproving stares. Spot the tourist or holiday home owner became a “weird’ habit which was hard to shake off. When itcame to the NHS clap a total of four windows were open on the Harbour front clapping away. This along with the lack of lit up windows at night, showed us that there had not been any great level of visitors coming to the town to hold up. For this we are very thankful.
“Weird” will also be the correct description for when the town opens up again. Dealing with large crowds, under social distancing, will be challenging and no doubt stressful. But hopefully with the correct guidance put in place, and compliance to these guidelines from everyone, we can safely bring St.Ives back to life, and lose this”weirdness”.
Lovely words Gordon .
It helps those of us who have a small part of St ives ,to hold on until we can get back . Let’s hope when the visitors come back ,they are welcomed, because im sure their business is much needed to save the local economy .
Great blog Gordon – and Trevor I agree you don’t get enough of a mention, I often buy my wine from you but I forget you too, I’m sorry, you’ve done a fantastic job staying open during this time and it’s much appreciated among us that live in town.
What a lovely blog Gordon! Such a nice idea for Fathers Day! All the local shops have done a fabulous job keeping the town alive! X
Osbornes was open throughout too. Delivering to hundreds of households for over 12 weeks now. But yet no mention in your blog. You know a local business just likes yours? But you mention the coop a big national company. Its weird that we never get mentioned in anything to do with town! We have been thee for nearly 9 years!