Our stories

Peace of mind

Moving into a care home made easy

Our care team are here to make sure that making the move is as easy as possible for you and your loved one. If you still need reassurance, here are some stories from our residents, their families and our care team.

We had a special trip down memory lane with a residents interesting history in shoe design. She showed us all her fantastic art work and recalled so many stories from sketching in Milan to working in a local factory. She was so proud of her achievements and we were honoured to hear them.

What a way to celebrate Burns Night. One of our lovely members of staff provided traditional Scottish day and night wear for men. Including a sporran, a sgian dubh, shoes and an amazing kilt. The residents loved exploring them. We listened to Bagpipes and we enjoyed some Highland dancing.

Christmas as we know, is the most festive season of the year and this competition allowed us to make it even more festive and special for our residents, getting involved not just our residents, but the staff and the members of our community.

Christmas at Allingham

As we celebrate National Cheese Lovers Day, we in Amber Court organised a wine and cheese tasting. Everyone enjoyed tasting the different types of cheese, crackers, dips, nuts, fruits and non-alcoholic wines. We also had fun socialising with each other while some staff is singing karaoke.

Cheese and Wine Tasting at Amber Court

Last week our lovely residents enjoyed a bingo afternoon. We played for prizes/ for a line and then the full house, our residents were really in their element concentrating on the numbers making sure they didn’t miss one.

A Week at Water Royd

We celebrated the arrival of January with a special New Year's Day tipple to toast in 2022. Here are some of the people living with us enjoying a glass of sherry to celebrate. Team Knights Court wishes everyone a happy and peaceful 2022.

Happy New Year from Knights Court

Bowerfield House had a great day celebrating National Cheese Day, we had 5 cheeses: French Brie, mature cheddar, red Leicester, wensleydale with cranberries and blue stilton.

National Cheese Day

On Sunday 9th January our residents watched a DVD of Norwich in the Sixties. Everyone said that they found this extremely enjoyable. It was enjoyed with a nice cup of tea .

Norwich In The Sixties

Bowerfield House had a lovely day celebrating National Flower Day, we all enjoyed talking about our favourite flowers and we loved how nice the flowers smelt.

National Flower Day

Ann was delighted with the results of her floral interpretation.

Floral Interpretation

Sylvia had fun helping to make a luxury hot chocolate , she helped to whisk the chocolate into hot milk, added a touch of syrup and topped it off with cream and marshmallows.

Luxury Hot Chocolate

It's International Flowers Day, in line with this we organised flower arrangement sessions for the residents and staff. Since flower arranging helps us to boost the mood and happiness, it also promotes socialization and it helps reduce stress and anxiety for everyone.

International Flowers Day

A lovely afternoon of chatting and creating wool and paper flowers. The residents then enjoyed using them along with previously made pom poms and other found objects to create a wonderful table top arrangement full of colour and different textures.

Table Arrangements

Winnie the Pooh has been a childhood favourite for generations.

At Buckingham House we all enjoyed remembering Winnie the Pooh, along with his friends Kanga, Rabbit, Roo, Tigger and Eeyore and all of their wonderful adventures together in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Winnie the Pooh Day

We love any excuse to organise a party and make the residents enjoy themselves and we love to make sure they are having a good time here in our home.

1950s Party at Allingham

The busy Christmas season may be a distant memory, but nothing slows down at Deepdene. Our days are busy with morning exercise and singalongs, visits to the hair salon and caring for our beautiful lovebirds.

Activities at Deepdene

It was International Flowers Day on 19th January, so we used our artistic flair to arrange this beautiful display.

International Flowers Day

Our residents enjoyed playing games today, Margaret, Dorothy, Mona, Owen and Sylvia also really enjoyed the drinks trolley with a glass of Baileys and Sherry.

Games Day at Alexandra Court

We are ready for Winnie The Pooh Day. There is a choice of colouring in, a "can you name" quiz and some positive and happy quotes from the bear.

Winnie The Pooh Day

We had a lovely walk out with Sylvia and Mabel, the sun was shinning so we went for a good walk around the block. We enjoyed looking at the gardens near the library and enjoying the fresh air.

Sadly we have taken our lovely Christmas trees and decorations down, one of our first activities this year was to make Kings cake. The King Cake tradition was believed to of originated in France and brought to New Orleans in 1870.

Muffin the rabbit has come to live with us at The Westbourne. The residents have enjoyed handling Muffin and they also enjoy watching her hop around the lounge.

Muffin The Rabbit

Our brilliant chefs made some delicious Shortbread Biscuits with fruit today for us all the enjoy with a nice cuppa.

Shortbread Biscuits

What a great combination for one of our residents this week as we celebrated together in style. The smell of some of the flowers was beautiful too. A member of staff had provided us with a wonderful copy of an RHS magazine which was very much appreciated.

Birthdays and Flower Arranging

We had some amazing entertainment here at Troutbeck for the Christmas season, music has been so beneficial since the onset of Covid and promotes overall health and wellness while eliciting positive memories and reactions.

Christmas Entertainment at Troutbeck

On Monday morning our residents had an art class. Everyone enjoyed showing their master pieces to each other.

Art Class at Ashfield Court

This is Buddy our new resident at The Westbourne. He has been living with us for a few weeks now. He enjoys singing and flapping his wings.

Introducing Buddy

On this day our Kitchen Chef prepared a delicious Chicken Curry for our lunch today. One of the residents requested for another plate of it. It was very nice to have a rice meal like this once in a while. Thank you, Joey (Chef)

Curried Chicken Day in Amber Court

We all enjoyed eating Gluten-Free Oats Flap Jacks made by our very own kitchen chef. It was served with chocolates dip, colourful sprinkles and marsh mallows. Some other residents had time to decorate their own flap jack before eating it.

Gluten-Free Day

Bowerfield House have been very busy this past week with activities ranging from water painting to cooking. We had a lovely meal for our evening meal, a homemade beef stew. Jenny helped with putting all the ingrediencies together and putting them all in the slow cooker.

Bowerfield House Cooking Day

At Hope Green we created a display to celebrate German Apple Day which sparked conversation particularly from our German resident about German apple cake/pie and memories of her time in Germany.

German Apple Day

Exploring the garden during January has been proving to be delightful for both residents and staff. The start of a New Year and feeling the winter sunshine on our faces has been a real tonic for us along with checking our flowering primulas and replenishing our bird feeders.

Winter Garden at Hope Green

Annette, Barbara, Louvain and I was in charge of writing our Christmas cards which were delivered to our neighbours throughout the festive period. Community spirit is very important to us and this is one way our residents wanted to show support.

Neighbourly Spirit

As our home is set over three floors we had three beautiful trees to decorate over the festive period. Our residents selected a different colour theme for each floor and we picked the best decorations to fit and each tree had a hand made decoration on made by our residents and staff.

The Belvedere's Christmas Decorations

Anne had fun this morning getting creative making a card to send to her family. She smiled when she realized it matched the hearts on her top.

Art at Carmel Lodge

Vera spent the afternoon doing a virtual tour of her homeland Italy, she really enjoyed herself she then made a fan whilst listening to Italian music.

Vera's Virtual Tour of Italy

It turns out taking the Christmas tree down is just as much fun as putting it up. Smiles and giggles all round from our fabulous helpers Faye and Vera.

Taking The Decorations Down

We have a Reminiscence Suitcase full of lovely information about the Norfolk Broads from the local library. The residents enjoyed talking about their holidays on the broads, looking back at photos and giggling at the floral hats, yellow polka dot swimsuits and trying on sunglasses.

Reminiscence Suitcase

Christmas this year was a little different to planned, as we unfortunately had to close our doors to visitors.

Christmas at Abingdon

Our beautiful new home is really starting to take shape & we are delighted to share with you, some snaps of the progress from December.

Here you can see …

We’re excited to let you know that voting for the 8th Annual Care Awards will be opening on Tuesday 1st March, so now is the time to start thinking about the super stars and stand out performers you’d like to see nominated.

Bowerfield House started the year with lots of fun. We had a game of connect 4, and some fun with a parachute and ball, we had lots of giggles and got a physio session in there too.

Games, Baking and Fun

We all know how it’s been a struggle for so many this last 2 years. River View thinks is really important to not just look out for the people around you but further afield also. Age UK’s Dementia Café in Reading and Newbury were able to restart again in November.

We welcome our new manager Steven Haddock to Bowerfield House, Steven has been with us for 1 week and we are sure he will fit in our little family perfectly .

Welcome To The Team Steven

Happy New Year from Windmill Court

Happy New Year from Windmill Court

River View welcomed the harmonious sounds of the Pangbourne Brass Band recently. Once again, we wrapped up warm to listen to their sounds in our gardens. They have some unique talents in the group, with several members having performed and the London Palladium only days earlier.

Pangbourne Brass Band

Phil Burgan, our Executive Chairman, was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Knight Frank UK Luxury Care Home Awards in recognition of his exceptional contribution to the sector during an illustrious 25-year career.

Congratulations Phil!

A relaxing afternoon of craft and colouring was enjoyed by residents at Hope Green. Residents were interested in choosing colours to experiment with in their colouring whilst others started our project of crafts in readiness for some events coming up this month.

Crafts and Colouring

Three members of our wonderful team, all received a gift voucher and card for their hard work and going above and beyond in their roles.

Congratulations to Acacia – Carer, Jeremy – Reception and Darren – Senior Carer.

STAR OF THE MONTH

Every Tuesday we are very fortunate to have Melanie join us to deliver a seated exercise class for residents to support their physical and emotional wellbeing. Each session is super charged with energy and thoroughly enjoyed by all.

The Wharf Care Home