Corona Diaries - Making History Together
We collected completed diaries kept by Arnside residents during 100 days of lockdown. These have been logged into the archive and can be viewed by visiting us. If you still have a diary that you want to donate to the archive please email it to us at arnsidearchivegroup@gmail.com
The Arnside Archive Group invited people living in Arnside to write a diary for us about their experience of the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a major crisis that will go down in history. At this time of national anxiety and challenge, Arnsiders demonstrated amazing resilience, care and support for one another. Volunteers, businesses and residents co-operated to keep people safe and fed. The experiences of those who documented this will be part of the record of this time and will be held in the Archive for future generations to read. We are still collating and cataloguing the material people gave us.
We sent out the following invitation:
We are looking for around 30 residents who would be willing to write about what you are doing and feeling during these weeks, how you are keeping in touch with other people, getting food, keeping fit and well etc.
We would like to record as wide a range of experiences as possible, so for example we would like to include people of all ages and situations:
- families with pre/primary school aged children
- families with secondary aged children
- retired people
- people who have been travelling abroad or have overseas links
- people who are key workers (especially working in care, NHS and emergency services)
- self-employed people and those with businesses
When you have finished your diary, please email it to us or post it to Arnside Archive Corona Diaries Project, The Slipway, Redhills Rd, Arnside LA5 0BW. We will ask you at that point to sign a consent form so that the diary can be stored in the archive, anonymously if you wish.
Please pass on this invitation to people who might be interested and enjoy writing diaries by hand but do not use email.
If you are living with other people, especially with children, you could write a family diary. Photos, pictures, jokes and practical tips are welcome as part of the diary. You can type or handwrite or even audio record your diary. You can write a lot or a little.
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ALSO......
For anyone interested in recording their own recent experience, the national Mass Observation archive sends an invitation every year to people in the UK to write a one day diary on May 12th. In 2026 the theme is nature and well-being. Details are here....
http://www.massobs.org.uk/write-for-us/12th-may
