Activities at Stamford Bridge Beaumont Care Home

Our residents recently celebrated curry week by donning their pinnies and making a selection of samosas for the curry night, it was all hands on deck but the end results were amazing and it goes without saying that they didn’t last very long.

Cooking and baking activities really do promote socialising and conversation as food is common ground for everybody, we had stories from all corners of the earth regarding local delicacies, their ingredients and how they were cooked, absolutely fascinating and eye opening how people found ways to feed their families through some very desperate times, very humbling.       

Some of our residents recently shared their baking skills that have been honed over the years to make these rather delicious cheesecakes. 

There were many made but not surprisingly, none left when they were finished as there were plenty of willing volunteers to try them. I’m led to believe that they were absolutely delicious.

Any form of food-making activity is always a fabulous experience to be a part of as everybody has their own stories of secret recipes and special ways of making things that have been passed down through generations, there is always a sense of history and being privy to some real family secrets. 

Staff and residents joined fellow keen quizzers from over 250 Barchester care homes and hospitals across the whole of the UK, including Wales, Scotland, Jersey and the Isle of Wight, to put their collective music knowledge to the test.

Barchester’s second ‘Now That’s What I Call a Music’ Quiz took place recently when Stamford Bridge Beaumont got super competitive and took on its sister homes from all over the country to find out which Barchester home or hospital had the best musical maestros.  From melodical mindbenders and toe tapping teasers to chronological brain puzzlers and sing-a-long sleuthing, the homes battled it out to find out who would prevail.
 

We had a wonderful cheese and wine afternoon recently. It was so nice that so many of our regular visitors also came along to share the afternoon with their loved ones. The atmosphere was absolutely fantastic, lots of laughter and conversations. 

Special thanks go to the catering team who put together a wonderful spread of various different cheeses for people to try, needless to say, there wasn’t any left by the end of the afternoon. The wine was also very popular.

Our residents recently planted sunflower seeds that were growing in our residential garden, shortly after planting we had some building work commence so the area was out of bounds and this coincided with the heatwave and no rain!

As soon as we were able we managed to rescue some rather poorly looking plants and spent the morning giving them some lovely new pots and lots of water. We’re very pleased to announce that the sunflowers are doing really well and we have moved them to an area where we can keep an eye on them.

Our residents have put so much work into creating our lovely garden areas which are enjoyed by everybody, this includes mother nature as we’ve really noticed an increase in birds and butterflies visiting this year.  

Our regular breakfast club goes from strength to strength, what’s really lovely is that various members of staff are able to join the group for a quick cuppa and a bite to eat, our residents really enjoy this time to socialise with everybody and share their appreciation for all the support the staff team give them.

The breakfast club is now very much a part of our regular activity schedule as a permanent fixture due to how successful it has become.    

With winter not too far away our residents made some fabulous bird feeders for our feathered friends to help them through the colder months.

We all love seeing the birds in the gardens and these feeders will no doubt attract a few extra visitors for everybody to enjoy.
The feeders are made of pine cones, stuffed with lard and then rolled in bird seed, a really simple but very effective idea. 

Our residents really enjoyed making them and we know that some of our regular visitors will be making them for their own gardens having been inspired by our residents efforts.

It was world prosecco day recently and to celebrate not only did our residents indulge in some of the fizzy stuff but we also complimented this with strawberries, it seemed the right thing to do given the lovely sunshine we had on the day.

Everybody thoroughly enjoyed themselves and enjoyed a lovely social get-together with their friends and we also had some family members who joined in the fun. It’s always really nice to receive the support we do from our wonderful family members.

Students from a local school to Stamford Bridge Beaumont recently visited and spent some time with the residents as part of achieving their Humberside Police Lifestyle Awards for younger people. 

The children helped our residents celebrate “World letter writing day” by assisting them to write letters to residents from other care homes in the hope of receiving replies and opening up new friendships.

Our residents recently enjoyed a visit from our local ice cream van, NIC’s Ices, who sell a variety of delicious ice creams and iced lollies. It was such a lovely day and the ice-cream van brought a real sense of nostalgia for many of our residents who shared memories of their own children waiting for it to arrive, having heard it in the distance and the inevitable questions of “how long will it be”, “ where is it now”, “when’s it coming to our house” and many other stories that every parent can relate too, it’s so lovely that just the visit of an ice cream van can trigger so many fond memories and really get people talking.     

With Autumn very much in the air, our ever-growing flower arranging club made some beautiful arrangements for around the home. Not only do they look absolutely amazing, they smell really nice too.

The flower arranging group started with only a couple of people regularly attending. It’s now absolutely blooming (pun intended) with so many new members making it such a fun and enjoyable social activity as well.   

Our residents recently joined with homes across the country to play “Barchesters big music quiz”. We rallied together and decided that we would compete as a team and go with the majority answers, this really promoted a fabulous atmosphere in the room and a surprising edge of competitiveness.  

We came away with a very respectable score of 31 out of a possible 45 points which everybody was happy with as some of the questions were a bit difficult and our “guessing the years” always seemed to be one year out.

Everybody said that they really enjoyed themselves and that they would look forward to doing another one sometime in the future.

Our flower arranging group is growing week by week and the displays are ever more beautiful. There are some fabulous colours around at the moment, no doubt helped by the lovely summer that we’re having.

Not only do our ladies make fabulous vases of flowers to decorate the communal areas, but they also make lovely table-top displays which make the meal time experience even more pleasant.

Bryan Lawson, resident ambassador has been crowned Resident Ambassador 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 the staff and residents 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’ ‘Activities Coordinator of the Year’ and ‘Resident Ambassador of the year’. 
 

Our knit and natter group have been very busy making sort toys from pom poms for the children at the local nursery. We can’t wait to see their faces on their next visit. Quite a few of our group initially came just for the natter as arthritis and other conditions made knitting either painful or impossible, so we got our heads together and tried a variety of different wool-based activities and, lo and behold, pom pom animals were created. Our residents were able to use the pom pom makers, which has been so good for their self-confidence, and everybody has a real sense of achievement as the toys look fantastic. 

We have a variety of different wool crafts to try in the future. Our residents absolutely love being so creative and our little group of 4 to 5 people now averages 10 to 12 people.