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 were delighted to have a visit from two horses this week at Willowdene who came in to meet our residents at the home. Our residents used to love the miniature ponies visits so we thought we'd have the horse's come to visit. The residents came out one at a time to see the horses and

Horse Visits at Willowdene

The residents have thoroughly enjoyed the travelling theatre. We were able sit in our new outside area and enjoy the show following social distancing rules.The residents laughed out loud during the show.

Travelling Theatre

Skell Lodge residents took part in St Wilford's Parade. This event has been running since 1108 when King Henry granted permission to the city to hold a fair to mark the birth of the saint on 30th July. Ripon has held this tradition ever since.

St Wilford's Parade

We have been so pleased to welcome back the families to the home for outside visiting and have our own gazebo in our lovely garden at the back of the home.

We are hoping for lovely weather in August to welcome you back to the home.

Visiting at Earsdon Grange

We love being creative at Earsdon Grange and doing a little home baking. We spotted some plain biscuits on the tea trolley and thought we'd give them a bit of a revamp. Two of our residents enjoyed decorating biscuits for the afternoon tea trolley.

We love our chilled afternoons watching a movie at Earsdon Grange Care Home, it gives us chance to unwind and relax after a hectic week with activities in the home. Residents enjoyed a film afternoon with their own tubs of popcorn and sweets.

Movie Afternoon at Earsdon Grange

We are proud of our heritage at Ashfield Court and were delighted to celebrate Yorkshire Day on 1st August at the home.

We enjoyed some Yorkshire tea and Yorkshire treats and all had a very lovely day.

Yorkshire Day at Ashfield Court

Covid-19 has affected Belvoir Vale just like it has many other homes around the country. Residents are missing going out and about, having entertainers in and most of all seeing their families.

Get Involved in the Big Knit Making Hats

For this month's baking club the residents decided that they would like to make some fudge. We sourced recipes and decided to make milk chocolate fudge and white chocolate fudge with KitKats in.

Making Fudge at Oaklands Care Home

Excitement came to Oaklands Care Home today!

The kind generosity by our Regional Director, Paul Brookfield who arranged for a visit from an ice cream van and all residents and staff could have an ice cream of their choice.

Visit from the ice cream van at Oaklands

On the 1st of August everyone at Clumber Court Care Home enjoyed a beach day in the garden. It was an amazing day and we had a BBQ, games, bubble wands, a sand pit and lots of fun and laughter.

Beach Day at Clumber Court

Today was a sad day at Yohden Care Complex on Hesleden Road in Blackhall, Ivy Barker, our lovely 102 year old resident said goodbye to us all as she made her final journey to Durham Crematorium.

A send off for Ivy

Some of our residents at Manor Park Care Home enjoyed making pom pom garlands in rainbow colours to liven up their rooms, while others opted for something a little more abstract in the form of acrylic paint tipping onto canvases. The results were a surprise every time!

Getting Creative at Manor Park

Here at Manor Park we celebrated a resident's 100th Birthday due to lockdown family was unable to visit but we made a special effort to make sure Daisy had a fabulous day.

Daisy Celebrates 100th Birthday

We are continuing with the Yorkshire theme at Howgate House with staff and residents wearing flat caps and moustaches.

Yorkshire Day Continues

Gifts and cards for Maria Mallaband

We have been overwhelmed by the kindness we have received at Manor Park Care Home from the local community during our time in lockdown we have had an abundance of letters and cards from people giving us praise and saying how proud they are of the hard work we are doing.

Kind Words, Cards and Gifts

We have been busy painting and planting flowers to create social distancing areas for visitors at Skell Lodge Residential Home. We have up cycled all the outdoor furniture to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere for every one to enjoy.

Painting and Planting Flowers at Skell Lodge

Today we've been painting snail plant pots, with the aim of having a little trail of them in the sensory garden at Belvoir Vale Care Home.

Yohden Care Complex is delighted to announce the promotion of Hayley Holland to Deputy Manager.

Hayley started her Yohden career in 2001 as a laundry assistant and one weekend was given the opportunity to work a care shift at the home and realised her passion was in care.

Yohden Welcomes New Deputy Manager

Knit and natter is one of the favourite activities at The Moors. We make all kinds of creations from pom poms, squares for blankets and baby jumpers for newborns. We have a drink and a treat and a good old chin wag about life.

Knit and Natter at The Moors

Crafts are a big hit at The Moors Care Home from colouring, painting, sticking and lots more.

It is always a fun afternoon and sessions are all themed for the date and time of the year.

Arts and Crafts at The Moors

The ice cream van visited The Moors Care Home on a Friday afternoon with a choice of a number of delicious ice creams and cones for all the residents and staff. A wonderful treat for everyone on a hot sunny day.

Ice Cream for Everyone

We were delighted to hear from Nina from Stirrd (a fudge brand) located in Harrogate who wanted to arrange to give the staff and residents of Ashfield a little treat of some beautiful lemon flavoured fudge and salted caramel marshmallows.

The Gift of Fudge

We are still receiving gifts from family and friends. Our most recent was this lovely chocolate basket and card addressed to our marvellous staff for keeping everyone safe.

Chocolate Treats

We love home baking at the home and one of our activities this month was to make our own Pizza’s and cakes. We made margarita,, chicken with peppers and cheese and even made our own delicious sponge cake which was delicious.

In the past we have been blessed with regular visits by children from a local nursery but unfortunately we haven't been able to see them for the last few months and we have missed their visits.

We might be living through very different times at the moment at Garden Hill with regards to visitors in the home but we are still continuing to do a lot of activities we have always done. Every week with our activities coordinator at the home, Stacey, we have been doing our chair exercises

Weekly Activities at Garden Hill

Heeley Bank Manager, Lynne Cannell and her team launched the 999 afternoon tea break week on Monday 3rd August with a celebration of Yorkshire pudding and onion gravy.

999 Afternoon Tea Break Week

Nora Batty lookalike visits Howgate House on Yorkshire Day and served a lovely Yorkshire lunch of sausages,mash and beans followed by apple pie and custard.

Everyone also enjoyed lots of Yorkshire based treats.

Yorkshire Day at Howgate House

To celebrate world chocolate day a chocolate making station was set up at The Belvedere. The residents got to choose the flavours and decorations they wanted to create their own chocolate bites.

World Chocolate Day

We wanted to decorate our activities lounge and when we found some old vinyl records which were really scratched and not fit for playing anymore so we decided to get a little bit creative.

New Decorations Activities Room

Rose Lodge Care Home on Careers Way, Cobblers Lane in Newton Aycliffe were delighted when Activities Coordinator Diane Tweddle was nominated for Most Innovative Activities Programme of the year for the North East Region in the Maria Mallaband and Countrywide Care Awards.

Care Awards 2020

Our Around the World party was a great success. Everyone was dressed their best and enjoyed our live social distancing entertainment by one of our regular singers Deborah. We had a buffet at dinner, a best dressed competition and a photo booth.

Around the World Party

We have been entertained by The Bluebirds here at Troutbeck, we selected a rock n roll theme the girls dressed in the style and sang a selection of songs from the era. Our residents were able to sing along and everyone said what a fabulous event it was.

The Bluebirds Performance

This week our residents at Carmel Lodge have enjoyed a variety of activities including hand massages and manicures, sitting back and relaxing and putting our minds to the test with a jigsaw.

A variety of Activities

We recently celebrated the birthday of one of our residents at Bowerfield House. We sung happy birthday, opened cards and most importantly enjoyed some birthday cake!

Birthday Celebrations at Bowerfield House

Nora, and her husband Ken celebrated their 70th Wedding Anniversary on Wednesday, 29th July.

70th Wedding Anniversary

This month has been filled with activities focusing on our theme of "Around the World". We have celebrated all of the continents throughout this month.

Around the World Month

Please click on the below link to view our July and August Newsletter.

July and August Newsletter.pdf

July and August Newsletter

The residents at Buckingham House will be encouraged to attach a wish written on a golden leaf, something they would like to do and the home will do what they can to facilitate the wish.

Our lavender in the back garden has been getting very long so we decided to cut it all down so we could enjoy it!

We have received many messages of thanks over the last few months and below is an example of the lovely messages sent.

Message of thanks

Staff and residents at Hope Green were over the moon to be awarded 'Best Decorations' for our regional tea party competition in March.

We choose the theme Alice in Wonderland Mad Hatter Tea Party.

Mad Hatters Tea Party Competition

On Wednesday 22nd July Troutbeck hosted an Hawaiian themed party for our residents.

Hawaiian Party at Troutbeck

Residents at Bowerfield Court loved making tie dye t-shirts. Everyone chose their design and colours and we patiently waited a week for the dye to set. Once they were ready our laundry staff washed them and now everyone has a new colourful shirt!

New Tie Dye T-shirts

It was a great day of activities for Bastille day at Cavendish Court. In the morning we had lots of french toast followed by learning basic words in French and also reciting the numbers 1-20 in French.

To celebrate our 'Around the World' theme, we made our own Dominican Republic carnival masks to wear for our upcoming party.

"It was a great day of activities for Bastille day, in the morning we had lots of French toast followed by learning basic words in French and also reciting the numbers 1-20. Everyone had a great experience and really enjoyed the day.

Bonjour à tous - Good Morning All

Continuing on with our Around the World theme we celebrated Europe this week.

We had activities including making Belgian chocolates, make your own Italian pizza, French wine and cheese afternoon, Spanish tile making and European flag canvas painting.

Around the World Activities

Bowerfield Court are delighted to be supporting Stockport Foodbank.

Supporting Stockport Food Bank