Covid-19: Norwich Cathedral lays 'incredibly sad' cross tribute

The Rev Canon Andy Bryant with the crosses laid at Norwich Cathedral in memory of the lives lost in Norfolk to Covid

A clergyman who has laid out more than 1,000 crosses to remember people who have died due to Covid said it has been an "incredibly sad thing to do".

Norwich Cathedral began marking each life lost to the pandemic in Norfolk with a small wooden cross at the end of the first national lockdown in May.

The temporary memorial has been laid out in front of the nave altar.

The Rev Canon Andy Bryant said he hoped each cross would "remind people of the individual stories".

Norwich Cathedral said the small wooden crosses had been laid out to focus on "individual stories"

More than 1,000 crosses now surround a candle blessed by the Bishop of Norwich, The Rt Rev Graham Usher.

Mr Bryant said: "It's a way of honouring the lives, but each time you add a cross you're aware that behind each of those crosses there's a real story, a real sadness.

"It's incredibly sad to realise just how many people are suffering because of this pandemic."

The tribute has been placed around a single candle flame

The cathedral said it had also wanted the memorial to provide a "comforting" place for the bereaved.

Although public worship has been suspended at the cathedral due to the lockdown, the building has remained open for individual prayer for a few hours each day.

Mr Bryant said: "We hope that people who come into the cathedral and see the Covid memorial will find it... a place of memory and a place where they can come on special days when they are particularly missing their loved ones and know that they are not forgotten - that here we are still remembering."