Staff at a retirement home in Cheddar have locked themselves in with the residents in a bid to reduce the threat of coronavirus - and the manager has admitted the first few days have been "emotional".

Twelve staff at Court House Retirement Home have moved in with the residents to protect those they are caring for, with others staying on the outside offering equally important support.

The family-run retirement home has 26 residents, and manager Christopher Dando said the decision to lock themselves in seemed to make itself.

He said: "We have obviously been following closely the increase of the spread of the coronavirus and last week we started hearing horrific reports of the multiple deaths of residents in single care homes.

"We had stopped any visitors coming in to the care home a week or so ago but could see that there was still a huge risk of the virus coming in via the staff who were in and out every day.

"The decision actually seemed to make itself and after talking to a very willing group of 12 staff we decided that we would lock ourselves into the care home with the residents.

"This has been a very emotional first few days as we have all left our families behind who we may not see for weeks - I myself have two daughters, Chloë and Edith who is four, left on the outside.

"We do not know how long this will go on for but we just felt that we needed to get locked in first and review our decision after.

"It was also very difficult for the staff who were unable for personal reasons not to join us but even though they are on the outside we are still very much a team and they have been supporting us really well.

"My brother James has stayed on the outside so that he can source all of our supplies."

Christopher and his team are hoping to try to keep the morale of residents and staff up by running a Court House joint choir and host a staff talent contest.