Activities at Edgbaston Beaumont Care Home

We recently celebrated resident Nan’s 90th birthday here with a lovely afternoon tea in our café.  Nan was joined by family and friends from afar and they enjoyed gathering for the food and prosecco provided by our wonderful kitchen staff.  Nan’s secret to a long healthy life is ‘eating healthy, but enjoying a chocolate treat every day’.

Recently at Edgbaston Beaumont we took a couple of our residents out to view the Victorian Radicals Exhibition currently on at Gas Hall.  The exhibition includes Pre- Raphaelite sketches and paintings as well as work by textile designer William Morris.  Our residents thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as well as learning about the history of some of the famous pieces.  For our resident Anne, founder of Birmingham Printmakers Association, the day out was a particular highlight.

We have been celebrating 200 years of Cadbury chocolate here at Edgbaston.  Being so local to the factory in Bournville it was especially important to celebrate the legacy of the famous confectionary company.

Residents were treated to a live virtual event about the rich history of Cadbury, as well as a talk by our resident Graham about his experience working there.

Highlights of his career included working abroad in New Zealand and assisting on a special edition publication for the Sunday Times about chocolate boxes.  Everyone here thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate devoted afternoon!

Here at Edgbaston Beaumont we had a sensory relaxation afternoon for the residents designed to relax the 5 senses: sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste.

The downstairs lounge was set up with gentle lighting, lavender scent and calming music and residents were offered a relaxing hand massage. A couple of the residents commented that they had never had a hand massage before and found the experience relaxing.

We finished off the session with some tasty soft Turkish Delight and a muscle relaxation, leaving residents feeling thoroughly tranquil!

During the Easter period we were privileged to play host to a family of chicks courtesy of Living Eggs.  The organisation left us with 10 unhatched eggs in an incubator and we were left to watch the journey unfold. 

The first couple of days were spent tentatively waiting for the chicks to begin their hatch, but as soon as one hatched the rest followed soon after! Our residents absolutely loved coming through reception each day to check on the progress of the chicks as they quickly developed their soft down and feathers.

Living Eggs are available for organisations such as residential homes and schools, and have free range farms allocated for the chicks once they move on.

A few of our lovely ladies joined to watch Barchester’s Virtual Live Events - Herstory Tour live stream on International Women's Day, documenting inspirational ladies throughout history hailing from London.  From Margaret Ann Bulkley, who posed as a man to qualify as a surgeon in the 1800s, to Angela Burdett- Coutts, notable philanthropist, we were educated on some wonderful female icons. 

A couple of the ladies who joined expressed interest in reading Lady Unknown, a biography written on Burdett- Coutts, which has inspired thoughts of a new Beaumont Book Club in the near future!