The Shepton Mallet-based maker of the big tents at the Glastonbury Festival has diversified during the coronavirus crisis to help the NHS and small, local businesses.

Albion Woods Show Tents is run by Hazel Hirst at Cannard's Grave, and in a normal year she would be flat out at this time preparing the six big tents for the Glastonbury Festival, such as the Cabaret Tent.

However, with the festival at Pilton cancelled, and so many other major events also called off around the country, Hazel is having to change her business plan.

One of the first new things she undertook was to create screens for the emergency department of Bath Royal United Hospital (RUH).

She said: "All the big show tents and circus big tops we normally provide are created by me, we are not a marquee supplier, we make and then install big tents for events like Glastonbury or the Reading Festival.

"I was asked to make some screens for the RUH, which I was more than happy to do for free and overnight to help as quickly as I could.

"But I want to help local businesses as well, so I can keep Albion Woods going also. I can create screens, curtains or blinds, either see-through or not, to help local businesses if they are reopening soon with social distancing restrictions."

Hazel says that she believes local businesses have responded superbly to the situation they have found themselves in during the crisis.

"There has not been much clarity for small firms," she said, "and they have dealt with it with amazing cheerfulness, and fantastic positivity.

"They have risen to the challenge, and after some faced panic of what the unknown may bring, they have just got on with it in a very British way."

And Hazel hopes that out of the adversity the pandemic has brought, some positives will come out of it, particularly at a local level.

"I think the appreciation of what we have and do locally, such as the Parkrun and small events in the town, will grow out of this," she said.

"I hope that the neighbourly spirit we saw during the VE Day anniversary celebrations will grow, and we will have a community that is better at looking after one-another and protecting the people we have here."

To contact Hazel and Albion Woods Show Tents, you can call her on 07815 871132.