Vicar reveals details about upcoming big events including well dressing at Chesterfield’s Crooked Spire

But how do you go about planning for a situation where you really don’t know what next week is going to bring?

MORE: Moment iconic Spitfire flew over Chesterfield Royal Hospital to thank NHS heroes

This has been a real problem for everyone since Covid-19 come onto the scene, and the whole long saga of Brexit – wherever you stand on the issues – has suffered badly from a consistent failure in effective long-term planning.

The only way to overcome such difficult times as this is to imagine all possible outcomes and circumstances and have an outline plan (often now called a ‘road map’) for each one.

This makes an awful lot of work but when the chips are down it means you are ready to act.

Or to use another image, like the swan – everything looks serene on the surface while you’re really paddling like hell underneath!

Now try to imagine what things are going to be like say at the end of August – or in November – or even by Christmas.

How do you plan?

With a contingency for every possibility from the (very unlikely) disappearance of Covid-19 as a threat, to the resumption of lockdown (please God no...).

At the Crooked Spire planning for autumn and Christmas events usually starts the year before, and some planning has indeed been on hold.

I’m not just talking about church services.

I’m talking about events that matter to a lot of people in Chesterfield and beyond – well dressings; Christmas tree festival; carol services.

The only way we can plan forward is to see what we might do under the present restrictions, while recognising that things might loosen up, but if they get worse then we may have to cancel.

So with all that said I can share the wonderful news that we are definitely planning to hold both the well dressing and the Christmas tree festival this year.

There will need to be careful access control for viewing of the well dressing, and we are planning a free online booking system for the Christmas tree festival, so that in both cases we can make sure that hygiene and distancing measures are kept in place.

At present, singing is still completely forbidden, so no announcements on carol services just yet.

These events will certainly feel a little different but we owe it to all the people who value the Crooked Spire, and its presence and contribution to the town’s life, to try and make a go of these things even under present conditions.

The well dressing is planned for August 29 to September 6 and the Christmas tree festival for November 14-29 – opening times to be decided.

Let’s hope that the forward planning works, and if things change we can be sure that other plans will be there ready to fall into place.

Watch this space!

Keep safe and keep well.

MORE: Vehicle thefts on the rise in Derbyshire

A message from the editor

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you

Nancy Fielder, editor