An area for rest, remembrance and reflection on the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic has been unveiled in North Tyneside exactly two years to the day since the UK’s first national lockdown was announced.
The memorial area at the Silverlink Biodiversity Park in Wallsend is the first of five being created across North Tyneside to help people remember and reflect on the impact of the pandemic both nationally and within the borough.
The reflection area based around the theme of a compass detailed in decorative hard landscaping paving with seating and natural planting, was unveiled by North Tyneside’s Elected Mayor, Norma Redfearn, with the help of four young carers who buried a time capsule containing items that represent their experiences of Covid 19 and the pandemic, including a face mask, hand sanitiser, an NHS rainbow poster, and a newspaper cutting on the crisis from The Chronicle.
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Officially opening the reflection area, Mrs Redfearn said: “I think all of us here today will think it is hard to believe that it was two years to the day since the announcement of a first national lockdown. Personally, I am particularly proud to be here at the reflection area created with the help of our communities and residents.
"They asked for a place to commemorate and remember those we have lost and to reflect upon our shared experiences of the pandemic. The areas of reflection are places where people can sit to remember the loved ones that they tragically lost during the pandemic, as well as offering a place to reflect on the impact the pandemic has upon all of us.”
She added that the design had been deliberately chosen because compass in Latin combines two words – ‘com’, which translates as together, and ‘passus’ which means pace or step.
“Together, they can be taken to mean ‘journey together’ which for the last two years is what we have done. We have journeyed together, we have worked together, and we have made sure that those less fortunate than ourselves have the support and help they need.”
The five memorial areas at the Silverlink Biodiversity Park, Killingworth Lakeside Park, Redburn Dene Park in North Shields, Wallsend Hall grounds and Souter Park in Whitley Bay, will when complete all be connected to the borough’s 30-mile wagonway network.
Mrs Redfearn said: “Our beautiful wagonways were very well used during the pandemic – and we want to continue to encourage people to enjoy them for walking, cycling and wheeling – so locations linked with the wagonways seems a natural fit for the areas of reflection.”
Work is underway to create the other areas and they will be opened in the coming weeks. Each, whilst based around a compass, will have artwork that is unique to the location it is situated and which has been chosen with the help of local communities.
The Killingworth area will feature a George Stephenson design, Souter Park a lighthouse, Wallsend’s will have a shipbuilding connection, and North Shields’ reflect the town’s fishing heritage.
The four young carers who buried the time capsule were drawn from primary schools across the borough and look after either a parent or a sibling suffering from mental health issues or other illnesses.
Speaking of the items that have been included in the time capsule, which will remain buried for the next 50 years, Monica, 10, said: “We are all young carers and we want other children of the future to understand how the pandemic affected us, especially young carers. We also wanted something to look back on when we are older too; something to remind us how we felt and the things that became normal life to us in daily life during the past two years."
