The North Tawton Events Group has set up a new ‘Unlockedown’ scheme to run throughout the year to help get residents socialising again after covid.

The group has been awarded lottery funding to run the year-long scheme which will include artistic, musical and gardening events to get people meeting one another face-to-face again.

Kay Caldwell, secretary of the events group, said: ‘After the two years of lockdown with people going out and clapping for the NHS being sometimes the only time people saw one another, we thought we should do something to get people back together again and get used to socialising again. There are people who are very nervous about doing so.’

Under the ‘Unlockedown’ scheme, the town group has already organised an art and trail event, which saw North Tawton residents create a piece of artwork to depict the village in the future.

Artists were then asked to put the finished piece in their window for passers-by to view. Judges travelled the town to choose the best piece.

The next event to take place will be a clothes swap at the community centre on May 7 which will run from 1pm to 10pm, though the swapping will only begin at 7:30pm.

Attendees can bring three items of clothing they no longer wear to the centre and swap them for a maximum of three other unwanted pieces. Changing areas will be made available to try on  clothes.

A ‘Budding’ session is also due to take place in the morning of  May 7 in the village park between 10am and 12pm to encorage residents to get involved in gardening activities.

Forty window boxes will be available at the event on a first-come-first-served basis which attendees can then fill with the provided plants and compost.

They will be able to take their finished window box home.

Ms Caldwell said: ‘The clothes swap is about buying at no extra cost and looking at the idea that we need to buy fewer new things to help the environment.

‘“Budding” is all to encourage an interest in gardening and brighten the town,’ said Ms Caldwell.

Future events will include a folk music night in the autumn thsis year and a re-telling of the North Tawton folktale of Nanny Knight who went missing from the village.

Ms Caldwell said that though the story of Nanny Knight is an old one, it fell out of fashion after the First World War at the beginning of the 20th century and was only rediscovered by today’s residents around ten or fifteen years ago.

The events group is planning to publish the retelling of the Nanny Knight story, complete with illustrations, for North Tawton residents.

The year’s events will be funded by the National Lottery Community Fund which awards grants to local organisations that aim to improve the lives of local residents through community-based activities.

In the financial year 2020-2021, the National Lottery awarded over £752 million to local community groups.

For more information about the events email [email protected].