THIS year has been like no other.

But throughout the crisis your County Gazette has been here reporting on the news that made the headlines in 2020.

We'll be bringing you some of those stories over the coming six weekends starting today with a look back to January.

In the first edition of the year, we announced: "It's going to be a big year for Somerset."

We weren't wrong there, but no-one could have imagined how things were going to pan out.

The proud parents of the four babies born in Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital on New Year's Day will doubtless tell their children in the years to come of how the area coped with coronavirus, a word most of us had never previously heard of.

It was a good start to the year for Musgrove, where it was announced the birthing centre was about to undergo a £300,000 upgrade.

St Margaret's Hospice welcomed the year in on a high note, all ready to celebrate its 40th birthday.

There seemed to be plenty to look forward to before the virus struck.

Arts Taunton announced plans for a £1million sculpture to adorn Creechbarrow Hill.

It would be visible from the M5 and the railway line, putting the county town firmly on the map, kick-starting its revival, hopefully drawing visitors, boosting the local economy and giving brith to a good factor.

You can't keep local politics off the agenda.

It emerged that Somerset West and Taunton Council had put its hand in its pocket and pulled out £2million to give to Mecca to buy the bingo hall in Corporation Street.

Apparently not a gamble, rather a shrewd investment to bring in more cash to help pay for the services council tax receipts were not able to cover.

Firepool had been a hot topic in the Gazette for 12 years since the former livestock market closed in January 2008.

There's been plenty of talk about the wonders that are going to be built there, but bricks have been in short supply.

That's all going to change in December, according to Cllr Mike Rigby's announcement reported in January - he told us work would start by Christmas and there could be a five-screen cinema opened there by 2021.

A feasibility study was being undertaken to look into the viability of constructing a multi-purpose venue there.

SWT had only recently been formed with the 'merger' - a word they hate in the council - of Taunton Deane Borough and West Somerset Councils.

The way that union was tied up was severely criticised in an official report, which concluded that the cost of the marriage had substantially overshot the original estimates, while staff were queuing up to get their hands on generous redundancy packages and to get out of the door, leaving the new authority stripped of talented officers.

Now there was talk of another reorganisation in local government, with Somerset County Council's proposals to do away with the district councils to create one enormous unitary authority to cover the whole county, causing ructions in the lower tier councils.

There was gloom on the high street, with a bombshell of four shops announcing in the same week that they were leaving Taunton.

As it happened, Hawkin's Bazaar and Warren James would leave the Orchard Centre, while Tony Pryce Sports upped sticks from East Street. In the end, Ann Summers struck a deal that enabled it to stay in Fore Street.

People's minds were on a summer of music, with Jessie J confirming she would be among the performers in a weekend of concerts in Vivary Park. Of course that never materialised due to the pandemic.

There was good news in Oake, where the first turf was cut on a new post office and stores after a massive fundraising initiative.

And as if to tell us the coming gloom of Covid-19 was a tiny blip in the annals of time, Jon Gopsall's dogs Poppy and Sam discovered a 197 million year old fossil on the beach at Stolford.

Tomorrow we'll be back to remind you of what made the news in February.