Help Morpeth Bounce Back Is the Plea to Local Shoppers ZOOMING in on the NEW MAYOR
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FREE Your FREE independent community magazine for Morpeth AUG/SEPT 20 Your latest... MEMORIES OF BIG JACK TOWN CRYER! STATION OPENING Pages 29-32 AFTER COVID DELAY Help Morpeth bounce back is the plea to local shoppers ZOOMING IN ON THE NEW MAYOR inside Morpeth 1 www.ravenkitchendesign.co.uk T: 01670 785722 E: [email protected] SHOWROOM: New Kennels, Blagdon Estate, Northumberland NE13 6DB 2 inside Morpeth 1011_Raven Kitchens_Inside Morpeth_Advert_Summer 18_AW.indd 1 20/07/2018 12:56 19 24 10 MORPETH 4 STAY SAFE - SHOP LOCAL Like the rest of the businesses in Morpeth it’s great to be back doing what we do best and that’s looking after and serving the people of our town in our own unique ways. In our case at Inside Morpeth that’s bringing you news about the town in our special publication that is the only 12 JUST THE TOWN’S TICKET one delivered free through every local door. Lockdown has been so tough for every business in Morpeth and sadly there are some that have not survived. But the vast majority are back and some have virtually not gone away at all, having carried on providing the essential services Morpethians 19 TOWN CRYER LATEST NEWS have needed so badly at a time when many did not know whether they would have a business to re-open once the worse of the coronavirus pandemic had passed. Credit to them and others who have found imaginative ways to keep going to look after their customers. We know, for HISTORY IN THE MAKING instance, of food shops that while not being able to welcome 20 their customers into their premises, have gone to their homes to deliver telephoned orders. Then there are the restaurants, take-aways, cafes and coffee shops that have been making and preparing meals to be collected or delivered to customers’ own doorsteps, that all deserve the same credit for being there when 24 MEMORIES OF BIG JACK the people of Morpeth needed them most. There are also plenty of stories of local people helping out their neighbours or older family members to literally get their daily bread and other provisions when they couldn’t leave their homes because they were shielding themselves from the most FLORAL FIELD OF HOPE deadly virus to sweep the country for generations. 26 Now the lockdown restrictions have been gently eased all those businesses which did so much for the people of Morpeth, need you to support them like never before. They need you our readers and residents of Morpeth to shop local so they can get back on their feet. When you needed the businesses of Morpeth 46 SAVED FOR THE FUTURE to be there for you they were, and now they need you to do the same for them! Front cover: Local business owners Dave Harrison, Chris Mitchell, Ian Leech Lee Richardson and Wendy Smith urging support from Morpeth residents Editor of Inside Morpeth www.ravenkitchendesign.co.uk Editor: Ian Leech, Tel: 07968 102 547 Email: [email protected] Advertising: [email protected] Distribution: Katherine Brodie (TYD) 07540 804 069 Inside Morpeth is a community magazine published by Ian Leech Publicity Services. All rights reserved. Every care is taken to ensure the accuracy of material published in T: 01670 785722 E: [email protected] Inside Morpeth. All information is accurate at time of going to press. The publisher does not endorse any advertising material published in INSIDE Morpeth. No parts of the publication can be reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher. INSIDE Morpeth c/o The Lodge, Carlisle Park, Morpeth NE61 1YD SHOWROOM: New Kennels, Blagdon Estate, Northumberland NE13 6DB TO PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS IN THE NEXT ISSUE CALL US ON 07968 102 547 OR EMAIL [email protected] inside Morpeth 3 1011_Raven Kitchens_Inside Morpeth_Advert_Summer 18_AW.indd 1 20/07/2018 12:56 Stay Safe Shop Local The message is - stay safe and shop local! For the past few months Morpeth just like every other town, city and village in England, has been badly hit by the impact of the devastating coronavirus which has changed everyone’s way of life and sadly cost so many thousands of people their own lives writes Inside Morpeth Editor Ian Leech As Britain was ordered into lockdown by As lockdown is gradually being eased happen the owners of every shop, Prime Minister Boris Johnson towards by the Government, Inside Morpeth has office, restaurant and take-away, café the end of March, shops, offices and been talking to four prominent local and coffee shop have gone to extra- businesses; pubs, cafes, coffee shops businesspeople to see how they have ordinary lengths to make visiting the and restaurants; sporting, recreational, personally fared during the current crisis; town centre as safe an experience as it could possibly be for shoppers. cultural and leisure facilities; and even how they think Morpeth has generally churches and places of worship were coped with the coronavirus pandemic; In turn, the message from the traders and and how confident they are that it can closed down almost overnight across business people is that the town needs recover and continue to thrive and England as life as we know it came to the wholehearted and committed support prosper as a premier market town in the an abrupt halt – and Morpeth was no of the people of Morpeth if they are to North of England thanks to the diversity different to anywhere else. get back on their feet again following the of its independent business, its excellent Covid lockdown. Five months on England is still in the grip choices of places to eat and, of course, the What is also evident is that they feel there of a virus which has quite literally swept pull of Sanderson Arcade. needs to be some thinking outside the around the world, yet signs are slowly A number of key issues have emerged box if Morpeth is to be promoted and emerging that the country is getting back from our interviews and perhaps the marketed as still being a great place to to something approaching a new kind of first and most important, is that there is a visit and shop, and a perfect example of ‘normality’ that we are all going to have to steely determination among the business that was demonstrated by hairdresser get used to for the foreseeable months or community to ensure that Morpeth Dave Harrison when the Government even years ahead – social distancing, face will successfully bounce back from the gave the green light for salons to re-open masks and all! past few months. To help make that on July 4th. 4 inside Morpeth Stay Safe Shop Local Not content with waiting for the morning were updated. “Specifically, we have of the fourth, Dave decided to open his introduced a one-way system around barber’s shop in Newgate Street at one- the store, installed hand sanitisers, and minute past midnight to work with his screens to protect staff as well as carrying five-strong team right through the night out additional cleaning during the day,” until 6pm on the Saturday evening! he said. In those 18 hours of non-stop working, more than 220 very appreciative “So, we have incurred additional costs customers had their locks trimmed and to enable us to re-open the store, but styled after not going near a pair of unfortunately we did not qualify for the scissors for four months, grants that retailers with lower rateable values can apply for, so as a business we Dave’s imaginative thinking caught have had to absorb those costs.” the attention of the press and the story appeared on the ITN and Sky But, like Dave and Wendy, Chris is very national bulletins as well as on Tyne confident their premises are safe for Tees Television; was broadcast by eight customers to return to. Dave Harrison (Dave the Barbers) radio stations, and reported on by three All agree that lockdown proved to be national newspapers. What pleased Dave as much as the publicity for his shop, a testing time and as Wendy said: “It however, was the fact the media coverage was very difficult financially due to the emphatically demonstrated that Morpeth uncertainty about when we would be able was open for business again! to re-open again, the costs involved in doing that and what our income would be. “Opening up at midnight wasn’t just The worst aspects were the uncertainty, about looking after our customers old and the worry and the lack of information.” new, or attracting publicity for Dave the Barber’s, it was about doing something Chris agreed, adding: “It was difficult to positive for our high street here in plan for the upcoming weeks and months Morpeth,” Dave told me. “We care about without knowing low long the lockdown Morpeth because it is such a wonderful would go on for, and what customer town to shop and work in and we want to confidence would be like once we were see all our businesses recover from what back in business.” was a dreadful time for all of us.” I did, however, detect some cautious Wendy Smith (Café des Amis) Like the other shop owners in Morpeth optimism among them about the future of Dave and his team led by Matt Johnson, their own businesses as well as Morpeth meticulously planned for their re-opening as a town along with some hope that by taking out the customers’ seating; with the travel trade in turmoil so far moving two chairs into a second newly- as holidays abroad are concerned, more created cutting area to comply with people are being tempted by so-called social-distancing requirements; equipping ‘staycation’ breaks in Britain.