The village of Abbots Ripton is a small community, which hold a primary school, a church, and a village hall.

For one weekend of every year, the tiny village of Abbots Ripton hosted the Secret Garden Party music festival in the grounds of Abbots Ripton Hall, but the event no longer takes place in the village.

During the pandemic, villagers have stuck together and supported each other.

Emily Moore, clerk of Abbots Ripton Parish Council, said: At the start of the pandemic the parish council set up meetings of all the organisations in the village to devise a strategy

“This resulted in a letter being sent to all residents inviting them to advise the parish council if they wanted to assist or they required assistance.

“A list was then created to advise residents of who was available to assist.

“Samantha and Adrian from the village Post Office helped pick up and deliver essentials when required.

“Stacey and Steve at the village pub organised a twice-weekly collection of fruit and vegetables service from the pub

“However the most important thing has been the community itself, because it is such a close knit community and everyone was aware of the close neighbours or friends who were shielding for various reasons and where happy to do their shopping or organise their shopping etc.

“The parish council has always been there to advise and help make sure all vulnerable residents were being cared for.

“This is the advantage of a small community.”

Rupert and Emily Robertson, who own a gin distillery called Artisan gin brand Roundwood in Abbots Ripton also played their part in the pandemic.

The couple paused their production of gin to make hand sanitiser to key workers to keep them safe, after they knew there was a huge demand for hand sanitizers at the time during the pandemic.

The bottles are made up of 80 per cent alcohol hand sanitising liquid and distributed free of charge.

Emily Robertson, Roundwood’s founder said: “We felt we had to take the opportunity and do something to help the heroic key workers in our community.

“They are risking their lives for us on a daily basis.”