Activities at Bedewell Grange Care Home

Three staff members at Bedewell  have received prestigious Long Year Service Awards in celebration of working at Barchester Healthcare for a combined 40-years.

Laundry Assistant, Marylin Feron and housekeeper, Audrey Martin, both started work at Bedewell Grange in 2010 and have both worked in various roles within the home, now playing an important role within the housekeeping team. Emily Mclean, Carer started at Barchester in August 2015 and has worked with residents and their relatives to ensure that their needs have been met over the years. Between them, they have dedicated 40 years of passion and commitment to Bedewell Grange which was recognised with one of Barchester Long Service awards.
 

Our residents enjoyed a trip to the Sunderland winter gardens where they enjoyed a wander around the museum looking at the mining life and how fashions and daily living has changed throughout the years. Our residents really enjoyed the museum and found it really interesting.

We stopped at a local bar for a spot of lunch and enjoyed refreshments in the museum café.

The weekly dance class which starts with a warm-up to prevent injury. During the session, we follow simple dance routines to favourite songs chosen by our residents. It is a popular fun-filled activity as we use a selection of colourful props to include into the movements and often find ourselves up on our feet dancing and enjoying a ‘boogie’.

It is always a lot of fun with everyone feeling great afterwards as exercise releases endorphins.
 

We celebrated the Bedewell way with a party. We were joined by residents' families and their children.

We had our very own ice cream parlour with a range of flavoured ice cream including strawberries and cream, vanilla, mint choc chip, triple chocolate, lemon meringue, toffee and Neapolitan. 

Our residents enjoyed decorating their ice creams with strawberries, toffee and strawberry sauce and chocolate wafers and flakes.

We enjoyed a sing-along and a range of cocktails.

Our ladies enjoyed making little fabric animals, including elephants and birds. Using felt, our ladies quickly stitched the animals before stuffing and decorating the final artwork.

Our ladies love a nice get-together and chatted about the days when you would wear your socks if they had a hole in them. The final products were nice and colourful and our ladies were thrilled with them.

We put on our Cowboy hats as Mike Memphis as Elvis returned for a showdown! We decorated the room for our theme day. We sang all the country songs as our residents danced along. 

Elvis is always popular here at Bedewell, and he is requested in every resident meeting.

Situated in our café at Bedewell, we have displayed our wish tree complete with our wish box and wish slips in which our residents can write something they would like to do, such as a trip out, a favourite meal or a hobby they enjoy. One of our ladies chose a steak meal with all the trimmings. 

Vinnie enjoyed a trip out to choose her steak and she also chose garlic bread with cheese, homemade onion rings and mushrooms with brown sauce. 

Our chef cooked the steak to perfection and Vinnie thoroughly enjoyed her treat! Her photo will be displayed on the tree now her wish has been granted.

Our residents have been out in force keeping our garden blooming and colourful. They have been watering all the pots as well as weeding and keeping everything tidy.

We have been taking out and spring bedding plants and replacing them with summer plants. Our garden is a lovely space that everyone uses and we welcome families to join us.

Bedewell Grange has been crowned Garden of the Year for the NE & Scotland Division in the Barchester Care Awards 2025 and is through to the national round of judging.

The Barchester Care Awards celebrate staff and care homes who go the extra mile for the benefit of the 13,500 residents living in Barchester’s 267 care homes and private hospitals across the country. Categories range from ‘Registered Nurse of the Year’ and ‘Carer of the Year’ to ‘Dementia Care Champion’ and ‘Garden of the Year’.

Over 5,000 nominations were received from homes and hospitals across the UK. All entries were a very high standard and Bedewell Grange is over the moon to have been named the winner for the North East, beating hundreds of other nominees.
 

Mike Memphis as Elvis entered the building, and you could feel the excitement as everyone looked forward to our monthly visit.

There was so much laughter, dancing and singing in the room, and it was lovely to have the company of residents' families joining us as we had a fabulous morning.

We celebrated the biggest night in classical music celebrating British tradition with patriotic music of the united kingdom with Last night at the proms.

We enjoyed tipples and a cheeseboard as requested in our residents meeting.

Everyone enjoyed the night and our residents said it brought back allot of memories from watching it over the years.

Our residents were delighted to be out in the mini-bus on a trip to Beamish museum. The weather was beautiful as we made our way around the 50s town. We chatted with the nurse with the silver cross pram identical to the one Queen Elizabeth used. We enjoyed fish and chips and a trip to the funfair. The bus drivers were fantastic and kept in character all day, which had our residents in hysterics.

We had a lovely day out and look forward to our next visit.
 

Our residents were very excited to celebrate this day.

We had a chocolate fountain with marsh mallows, a cocktail fountain and so much chocolate to choose from. We added in a fruit platter to add some nutrition into the mix.

We had a resident meeting where our residents made a list of all their favourite chocolate for us to display on our sweet trolley and its fair to say it went down a treat! 

Our residents opened Bedewell Grange dog groomers to pamper our resident dog, Honey.

Honey was lathered up with bubbles and enjoyed drinking the water she was rinsed with.

Our residents always enjoy the cuddles they get with Honey as they dry her off. She was on her best behaviour and loved being rewarded with lots of love. 

Hi, my name is Jessica and I’m a Senior Carer here at Bedewell Grange. I studied Microbiology for my BSc and later completed an MSc in International Business Management — but my heart led me in a different direction. When I moved to the UK in 2022, I discovered my true passion in caring for others, and I’ve been in the care sector ever since.

I joined Barchester in April 2024, and I honestly love what I do. Every day is a chance to connect with our residents, support them in meaningful ways, and learn something new. The team here at Bedewell Grange is incredibly supportive — it really feels like a family. I’m proud to be part of a home where kindness, respect, and compassion are at the heart of everything we do.