Gloucestershire joins national day of reflection to mark Covid lockdown anniversary
Gloucester Cathedral will toll its bell at noon for a one-minute silence
Gloucestershire will join the national day of reflection tomorrow to mark one year since the UK went into the first national lockdown.
A national day of reflection, organised by the end-of-life charity Marie Curie, will take place today.
A minute's silence will be held at 12pm followed by a bell toll, and people are being encouraged to stand on their doorsteps at 8pm with phones, candles and torches to signify a beacon of remembrance''.
The Prime Minister has said he will observe the minute's silence privately at noon while it will also be held in the Houses of Parliament.
London's skyline will turn yellow with landmarks including the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and Wembley Stadium lighting up at nightfall.
More than 250 organisations are supporting the day of reflection, including 82 leaders from religious groups and cross-party politicians, care organisations, charities, businesses, emergency services, public sector bodies and community groups.
According to the latest available data from the Office for National Statistics, there have been 618,676 deaths from all causes registered in England and Wales between March 21 2020 and the week ending March 5 2021.
In Gloucestershire, 1,162 people have lost their lives to Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic.
Greatest Hits Radio Gloucestershire went to the streets of Cheltenham to ask people what they're looking forward to once lockdown restrictions ease
“I’ve always gone out with my sisters and meet up so I’m just looking forward to being able to do that again”.
“Just meeting up with friends and family, going to dinner and the cinema and not having so many restrictions in place – it’ll be nice to socialise”.
“Family mostly. It will be so lovely to be able to get together. We usually do it twice a year, but we haven’t been able to over the last year”.
“It’ll be nice to have a bit more freedom after things have been so restricted and just be able to do regular things”.
“Getting together with our family, having a big family party – and of course a hug”.
“I’m looking forward to not having to think ahead and we can just pop into town for a coffee whenever we want to”.
Another woman got very emotional when we spoke to her - she said:
“I’ve been walking round town this morning and I feel like crying.
“I just want our hight streets to come back and for people to start using our shops again and not shopping online.
“We used to meet our friends in town and walk around the shops together and now we’ve lost that”.
Gloucester Cathedral will toll its bourdon bell at noon to mark the beginning and end of the national silence.
At 4.30pm, they will host a live-streamed Evensong from the cathedral with a choir and evening prayer.
Tewkesbury Abbey will be open as a space for private prayer and light a candle. The bell will also toll at noon.