THE TOWN THAT HAS KEPT OUT COVID-19
JUST THREE PEOPLE TEST POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS
LUNCHTIME in one of the East Riding’s most idyllic market towns. Giant Bradley stands tall surveying Market Weighton’s high street from atop his plinth – and he would be impressed with what he sees.
While Hull and many other parts of East Yorkshire remain gripped by high coronavirus rates, the former home of the man who still holds the title of England’s tallest man stands out like a sore thumb.
Parts of Hull still have rolling seven-day infection rates topping 500, while numbers are spiralling in the east, in places including Withernsea.
Many west Hull villages are still racking up rates of 200-plus, but things could barely be more different in the town up the A1079.
A mild Monday in late November, amid the worst public health crisis in decades, looks remarkably similar to how it would look in any given, more “normal”, year.
According to the latest government figures, just three people tested positive for Covid-19 in the week to November 24 in the town and surrounding villages, which include Shiptonthorpe, Goodmanham, Sancton, North Cliffe and South Cliffe – a far cry from the hefty numbers recorded elsewhere.
Pubs and cafés may be closed, but ut shoppers still have the confidence to go about their business in the area with one of the lowest infection n rates in the country.
For context, the Isle of White, with h a rate of 39.5, will enter Tier 1 when the national lockdown ends. Market t Weighton’s is now so low that the Government can’t reveal the exact number in order to “protect individuals’ identities”, meaning less s than three have been identified in the past week.
But the reasons behind the East Riding anomaly are unclear – even to the residents and shopkeepers who live and work in the town centre.
Sally May runs a vibrant flower shop come off licence nestled in High Street.
As luck would have it, the Flower Merchant owner applied pp for a licence to stock alcohol a month before the first coronavirus lockdown. While she was forced to close for two months back in March and April, it has allowed her to keep trading this time around.
With the entire East Riding set to go into Tier 3 from tomorrow, she has questioned if it is the right approach for her town.
“We’re quite a long way from Hull. I’ll be honest, I didn’t realise Hull was so bad or where it’s come from. It didn’t seem so bad and then overnight it was really bad,” she said speaking in the town 17 miles north west of the city, which, until recently, had the highest infection rate in the UK.
“We’re really low. We’ve only had about seven cases. I can’t speak for everyone else, but the consensus is why should we be tarred with the same brush? We’re a small market town. We struggle anyway then, with all this, we’re struggling.
“I’ve asked the council, please can you explain it. It doesn’t make sense.
“We’re on the boundary of North Yorkshire here and North Yorkshire is obviously in Tier 2. I live in North
Yorkshire. That’ll be about ten miles from here.”
The quaint market town nestled in the Wolds is one that harbours a real community spirit – one forged in the fields and enjoyed in the pubs.
However, its many public houses still have no date to reopen with a tier review not due until December 16.
While her own business goes from strength-to-strength, it is them she feels sorry for.
“On the Thursday [November 5], we were meant to close,” she said.
“I had a chain across the door as it was click and collect and then the council said to me ‘you know you can open as you’re an off licence’. I said ‘I don’t sell food’, but it doesn’t matter. So I just thought I’d open the door but I’m still encouraging click and collect.
“It’s been busy. Being a florist people can’t see anybody so they’re buying flowers to cheer people up.”
The town pubs were all firmly locked lo up yesterday, but the glistening of Christmas lights from within gave a glimpse of what drinkers will be missing as the fe festive season comes into full focus.
Pubs in Tier 2 will be open to reopen to sell food and do takeaways from December 2, meaning punters up the road in
York – a city many in Market Weighton commute to – can enjoy a return.
But, despite the remarkably low r rate, keeping them shut is s something supported by others.
Butcher Tom Bolland was seeing t to a steady stream of customers at F. Leakes Butchers of Southgate.
He explained how the pandemic has not had a negative impact on his business but that reopening pubs might be a step too far at this stage.
Mr Bolland said: “Most shops in the town, if not all shops in the town, have been able to stay open.
“I wouldn’t say we had an overly elderly population compared to Driffield or Beverley or anywhere like that, but I think everyone is doing as they are told, which is encouraging and nice to see.
“It’s not bad for business. It hasn’t done us any harm at all. We’ve been very lucky that we’ve been able to stay open during this pandemic and it’s been very good.
“I think a lot of people are going back to their local shops and going local instead of using your supermarkets for everything.
“I think it has to be reflective of the area. If I live in Market Weighton and you live in Market Weighton, where do you go to hospital? You go to Hull Royal, don’t you? So I
understand why we have to be in Tier 3. I think it’s a shame.
“If Hull was in Tier 3, for example, , and Market Weighton was in Tier 2 and they fancy a pint, what are they going to do? They’re just going to drive through and nobody is going to police that.
“If we were in Tier 2 and everyone around us was in Tier 3, it’s certainly not going to do us any good.”
One of Tom’s regulars, Janet Stiff, makes the regular trip from nearby Holme-on-spalding-moor to purchase her meat and was waiting patiently in line behind her mask for her turn to shop.
Despite the feeling that the town’s
low rate should be rewarded with Tier 2 status, she acknowledged that they just need to “accept it”.
“People are trying over here. They’re respecting the situation and we’re just being careful about it. It’s
frustrating. frustrating I can’t lie lie. We’re all frustrated but it is what it is. As long as we can get to see the family at Christmas, that’s the most important thing.”
Market Weighton’s rural nature and many elderly resident residents i is one reason given for the staggeringly low infection rate.
A few hours spent in the town yielded very few suggestions that anyone is willing to flout the lockdown rules – a far cry from some places where house parties and illegal gatherings appear to be a daily occurrence.
The town’s rural nature is also a major factor in the low occurrence of coronavirus, according to Robert Windsor, owner of Granville’s hardware store.
Incredibly, his family bought a second shop just next door earlier this month, stocking items including toys and haberdashery, such is the uptake in shopping local.
“We haven’t stopped since March 16. The days of us having a pallet every two weeks of stock to now doing 15 pallets a month,” he said.
“We’ve realised we’ve had to have twice the amount of stock.
“The thing with Market Weighton is most families here are farmers, so most of them are usually out in the field or dealing with cattle. We’re not the social type.
“We are the hub of farming. A lot of people here go to work in the field or they don’t see many people. A lot of f customers t th that ti I see are farmers. f They say ‘I saw Audrey last week or I saw so-and-so last week’ and that’s all they see in a week.
“We’ve only had three or four customers who had it from the first lockdown, but they’re only just coming out now.”
And the sudden increase in people snubbing commutes to Hull or York, or being furloughed, has also been a huge boost to other businesses, too.
Sally Walker runs Bright Ideas in the very building Giant Bradley once lived in, just yards from his statue.
She turned to offering a click-andcollect service during the second lockdown – something snapped up by residents who have had the opportunity to rediscover their high street.
“A lot of people who would normally be going in and out of York and Hull have been working from home or are maybe furloughed, so maybe there isn’t that movement of people,” she said.
“One danger of a place like this is that when we are working, everyone is out at work, but here we’ve found that we’ve been busy. We’ve definitely benefited.”