As residents turned out to clap for the NHS during lockdown, the mood soon soured on one particular UK street with a chaotic street brawl soon erupting.
A machete was brandished, a saucepan was used as a weapon and a number of those involved ended up at A&E as tempers boiled in the West Midlands.
Ravi Sidhu, prosecuting at Birmingham Crown Court, said all those involved lived in Chelmsley Wood's Piccadilly Close, BirminghamLive reports.
The incident had initially begun as a verbal altercation involving a number of individuals during clap for carers, he told the court.
However, there was then a physical fight between Andrew McMahon, 44, and one of his neighbours.
After this, Roy Minshull, 70, ran into his property and then ran back out towards the fight, brandishing a two-foot-long machete.
The judge said during the incident Minshull's partner had hit McMahon with a saucepan and that Minshull also aimed a kick at him.
The brawl spilt out onto the driveways and two of those involved fell onto a fence which collapsed.
Mr Sidhu said eventually other neighbours took it upon themselves to break it up and then the police arrived.
Mr Sidhu said: "It took place on April 16, 2020. That was during the period of lockdown.
"On this particular occasion, it was a Thursday evening when a number of citizens went outside their front doors to applaud the NHS.
"There had been bad blood between neighbours in this close which had been going on for a number of years."
Mr Sidhu said there had been allegations of anti-social behaviour on one side and bullying on the other.
A number of people were arrested, mostly family and friends of the defendants, although matters were later discontinued against them.
McMahon, along with three others, went to hospital after receiving injuries.
Passing sentence, Judge Francis Laird QC said: "A number of members of the three households had gone outside in the front of their houses in order to mark the work of the NHS during the pandemic.
"For some reason an argument took place."
He said as a result McMahon had challenged a neighbour to a brawl and had gone to the end of one of their gardens.
Even after taking the machete back inside Minshull had still been aggressive, the judge told the court.
He went on: "One of the features of the case is that the three families were making a gesture of thanks to the NHS for the hard work that they were doing during the pandemic and a number of them ended up in A&E adding to the workload of those people.
"You should be thoroughly ashamed of the way you acted."
Judge Laird said he accepted that both defendants were sorry for what they had done.
Sharon Bailey, for Minshull, said that he had easily been persuaded to take the machete back into his house and the reason he had become involved was because he believed a neighbour, who had recently been diagnosed with a serious illness and was of a similar age, was being attacked.
Ms Bailey told the court: "There had been some bad feeling between the three households prior to this event in 2020.
"However the police had not been called to this scene before.".
Chloe Ashley, for McMahon, said he was a family man with two children and that he accepted matters had escalated unacceptably and that it was an error of judgement on his part.
McMahon was sentenced to eight months suspended for a year and ordered to pay £425 costs while Minshull was sentenced to six months, also suspended for a year, and ordered to pay £250 costs. Both previously admitted affray.
