Three months on, and we’d like our lives back please Boris. If this ‘social distancing’ M’larkey is reduced to one metre that will make a huge difference, though some people, scared witless by all the doomsters, will still be isolating themselves a year from now.

Alone among local open spaces, we decided not to close the estate to visitors. We saw more people walking the footpaths and picnicking on the lawns by the lake, but never too many. They appreciate the beauty of Staunton, and we appreciate that they left no litter. Several have contacted us to say how much they valued having somewhere to go.

The workshops and studios at the FERRERS CENTRE have been closed, apart from Staunton Deli. As I write they have all reopened, plus the toilets, and the tearooms are set to join them on 4th July. The long break has had an upside; renewed energy and fresh initiatives are much in evidence. The threat of unemployment which hangs over other sectors has not touched us here; in fact the estate has just taken on another apprentice.

With so many shows cancelled this year we are planning to put on one of our own. The STAUNTON WOOD SHOW will be a modest affair in a paddock on the edge of the hamlet. It will feature about half a dozen local businesses connected with wood. The proposed dates are Saturday and Sunday, 5th and 6th September. These dates are my choosing; back in the fifties and sixties the Cheshire Home here at Staunton held its annual fete on the first Saturday in September, and for the first twelve years it never rained. Okay, it did rain on the thirteenth, and my brother and I had to cancel the fireworks because they’d all gone home. But, on the balance of probability………