Lockdown closure pushed B&B owner to volunteer

In 2020, a small bed and breakfast in Shropshire won a regional award, which the owner hoped would help raise the profile of the business.

But just days later, the country was put into the first Covid lockdown and Catherine Evans was forced to temporarily close Broome Park Farm B&B, near Cleobury Mortimer.

She described to BBC Radio Shropshire the frustration of not being able to take advantage of winning the West Midlands tourism award for B&B of the year.

"People couldn't come and stay, couldn't come and see what we had to offer here. It was a bit gutting really," she said.

Once the lockdown was in place, in March 2020, Mrs Evans remembered spending a lot of time in the garden doing yoga and enjoying the "glorious weather".

But she and a team of volunteers from Cleobury Mortimer also decided to rally behind the NHS and help people in need of support.

She sewed scrubs for local hospitals and was part of a group who organised deliveries of food and medicine to people's homes.

"It was a wonderful sense of purpose, because it made you feel like you were doing something to help," Mrs Evans said.

"They were quite dark days at times, when everybody felt quite helpless, so it was a wonderful thing to do."

When restrictions were lifted, a surge in staycations sparked a boom in her business but took "quite a bit of managing", she said.

"Even two or three years after Covid, business was strong," she added. "In the last couple of years it has eased off, with people going abroad, and the English weather hasn't been playing ball."

Asked how she felt when she looked back on the lockdowns, she said: "I think it was a wonderful community effort. I think everybody pulled together.

"For all the bad things, there were good things as well."

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