Activities at Hurstwood View Care Home

Barchester’s Hurstwood View care home, in Five Ash Down, was a den of ghoulish activity as the home’s spooky Halloween Disco got in to full swing.

Residents and staff got in to the spirit of things by decorating the home, icing spooky biscuits and cupcakes prepared by the home’s chef - all in preparation for a themed Halloween disco night. The local community’s children were invited in to trick or treat, with more than 50 attending!

General Manager, Kirsty Heaver cackled: “Our staff and residents love any excuse for a party!  The home looks fantastic with all the decorations and our head chef did us proud with lots of spooky treats – we’ve all had a brilliant time.”

Pat, resident at Hurstwood View said: “It has been such a fun day. It was wonderful to see everyone go to so much effort to get into the Halloween spirit. I really enjoyed seeing all the local children visit, their costumes were fabulous!

What a wonderful afternoon we have all had today. Cheese, wine and a good sing-a-long and dance to Frank Sinatra and Elvis along with lots of laughter.

Hurstwood View in Five Ash Down was invited to celebrate the 2nd birthday of Ridgewood Village Hall where they hold a monthly lunch club for the local community which is run by volunteers and sponsored by many local .businesses.   

The local community, volunteers and sponsors were invited to join the celebrations. Food and drinks were provided along with Marco the magician who performed his magic at the tables.

General Manager at Hurstwood View care home, said: “It has been a pleasure to sponsor live entertainment and provide cakes for this fantastic lunch club. Ridgewood Village hall’s lunch club has become a hub of the community and helped form friendships and avoid isolation. A lady at the club said: “We are so thankful to all our sponsors and volunteers that support the lunch club as it’s such an important part of my week.”

We had such a wonderful afternoon hosting birthday celebrations for our lovely resident, Pat, and 22 of her family members. These moments are so special, and we’re really honoured to make them possible for everyone involved. To us this is what delivering person centred care is all about. Thank you to our wonderful Kitchen team for sandwiches, cakes and scones – they were delicious!

Happiest of Birthdays, Pat. We know from your ear to ear smiles, you’ve had a wonderful time.

We spent a lovely morning at Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare. This wonderful local charity works to re-home dogs, cats and various other small animals, that have been subjected to cruelty, neglect and abuse. We enjoyed a wander around in the sunshine, with one of our residents being particularly pleased to see the cats they have ready to re-home. Of course, no trip to Raystede would be complete without a visit to their on site charity shop! The team here do such amazing work, and are always so knowledgeable and friendly. Please do support them by visiting if you are in the area.

We have had a lovely morning taking one of our residents back to her family home, to see her ponies.

This, our third visit back, was made extra special as friends and a neighbour met us there to say hello too.

Having devoted her life to looking after her ponies, this resident asks on a regular basis to see them.

We understand how important this is to her, so keeping close communication with her carer, we are doing all we can to get her home as regularly as possible.

As much as it’s somewhat of a bittersweet experience, she is always happy to see her much loved ponies, and leaves feeling reassured with how well they are being looked after.

If you have a loved one living with us and feel there is something meaningful we can offer them, please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.