This week’s featured Village in Lockdown in Exford - aptly named on its road signs into the village as the Heart of Exmoor. Its population of around 450 is made up of mostly sheep and cattle farming families, agricultural workers and farm hands.

Equestrianism is also a large part of the community and it’s been disappointing that the Golden Horseshoe and Exford Show, the two biggest summer attractions for the village, are now cancelled.

Villagers say that sometimes it seems they haven’t been affected by the lockdown. Tractors and trailers are busy making the most of the spell of fine weather to get on with essential work following what many believe has been six months of continuous rain. Farmers will tell you that they are used to working all day in isolation; it’s part of the job: animals need to be cared for.

Villagers were visibly shocked, fearful for their own safety, by the number of people that arrived into the village the weekend that schools nationally were closed down.

Normally, visitors are part of Exford village life: vital and essential to its economy, providing work for the community in the hospitality and sporting sectors. Now it is felt that Exford will be slow to recover, even after any partial lifting of the lockdown, until a universal vaccine has been found.

The Rev David Weir, at the Rectory, said: “It is very encouraging to see how so many people have rallied round, supporting one another in these extraordinary circumstances and finding ways to adapt so as to continue to share and express the strong bonds of community and goodwill we feel across Exmoor.”

See how Exford is coping in tomorrow’s Free Press.