Half in, half out: Lockdown on the Anglo-Welsh border

England has moved into a second lockdown but, within days, Wales will emerge from a two-week "firebreak", leaving one village facing the confusion of both fresh liberty and fresh restrictions.

Llanymynech straddles the border between England and Wales and for two weeks, half of its residents have been told to stay home, looking on as their English neighbours have enjoyed relative freedom.

But now the village of two halves, on the border between Powys and Shropshire, is changing sides.

Residents have said the border village was "forgotten" by authorities.

Bob Hedley moved to Llanymynech 14 years ago and runs the Bradford Arms Hotel on the English side of the border, which runs "about four feet" in front of his door.

He closed his doors on Wednesday for a month alongside another pub, The Cross Keys, just as The Dolphin - visible from the Bradford Arms - prepared to reopen on Monday.

On the Welsh side of the village, pubs have been closed during the fortnight-long "firebreak" to stem the spread of coronavirus.

Mr Hedley said he was not too concerned about losing customers to his Welsh neighbour, joking that "if you run it by the rules, their addresses would be in England so they shouldn't be going to The Dolphin anyway".

Just over 1,600 people live in Llanymynech and the publican, originally from Northumbria, said the village's community spirit had limited what could otherwise be a rivalry between the businesses. If he cannot accommodate guests in his B&B he sends them over the road to Wales and vice versa.

John Turner, the landlord at The Dolphin, lives above his pub and has looked across the road to his rivals as they welcomed customers for the past two weeks.

"This is the first time we've been able to open before them," he said. "The tables have turned."

When the firebreak comes to an end on Monday, the rules in Wales will have changed slightly again and Mr Turner predicts "hassle".

"If there's a Mrs Jones from England and a Mrs Jones from Wales, I haven't got a clue which side of the village they live," he said.

"It's not going to be for me to police it."

Mr Turner is ready to reopen on Monday but expected things would not be too different to how he was operating before the firebreak.

"We'll do things as well as we can," he said. "We're going to be really quite strict."

There was no need to share surplus pints as Mr Hedley, anticipating the announcement, had just been ordering "a trickle of kegs" and "had a couple of customers helping me finish off our real ale" before lockdown came into force on Thursday.

Jokes aside, Mr Hedley said people on the border had been forgotten by authorities and thought there should not be a difference in rules across the UK.

"Nobody takes into consideration split villages," he said. "We've had no guidance from Shropshire or Powys councils.

"It's not the Six Nations - it should be one set of rules for the United Kingdom."

The divide in the village has also thrown up problems for Sunday's Remembrance service.

A church service at St Agatha's to be attended by just 30 people was arranged but the village church is in England and will no longer be able to open under the new lockdown restrictions.

The war memorial, however, is in Wales so the committee have instead arranged a short service outside, with one person at a time permitted to lay a wreath - which would have been allowed if the memorial was on the English side of the border.

"We had to do a little re-adjusting," the Reverend Kathy Trimby said, "but no barrier is insurmountable."

Even though Welsh parishioners will no longer be in lockdown, and Ms Trimby, who lives in Pant, will also not be locked down, services will not be permitted in the church as only the churchyard boundary in technically in Wales.

However England's second lockdown is different to its first, and while services are a no-go, the doors will remain open for private worship, the vicar said.

Although, to complicate things further, the Welsh government has banned travel to England without "a reasonable excuse".

"We have been endeavouring to keep in touch with parishioners," Ms Trimby said. "We want them to feel a part of things regardless of what side of the border they are.

"We're a scattered but united church."

The church posts daily prayers on its Facebook page and physically delivers printed versions for people not on social media.

"The internet is a wonderful thing," Ms Trimby said, adding that services and meetings over Zoom had been trialled - something the church has also been considering for Christmas.

"We are working on two plans for Christmas," she said - in case restrictions were not lifted in England as planned on 2 December.

"Particularly at times like these, people need something even of the familiar, even if it's done in a slightly unfamiliar way.

Like Mr Hedley, Ms Trimby said "in an ideal world everything would be equal" across the UK's borders.

"But we don't live in a perfect world, we have to do what we can in our small corner to work within the parameters."

Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]