Belated anniversary celebrations for Quaker care home
'The pandemic has been very challenging but the care home managed to stay Covid-free until the end of last month.'
The Quaker-managed Bernhard Baron Cottage Homes is welcoming Local Meetings back to its grounds after celebrating its seventy-fifth anniversary late last year. The centre near Eastbourne, Sussex reached its milestone birthday in October 2020, but, with residents divided into two self-contained ‘bubbles’ and no visitors allowed due to lockdown, it was unable to mark the milestone event. A party took place in October 2021 for the summer. A book has been released to mark the occasion.
Janice Andrews, business manager, told the Friend that the pandemic has been very challenging but the care home managed to stay Covid-free until the end of last month.
‘We were hit eventually,’ she said, ‘but managed to avoid the really serious care home outbreak in April. Covid only came into the care home on 27 December because the hospital sent a resident back saying they had been PCR-tested when they hadn’t. Within a few hours, she had Covid. We lost five residents…two contracted the virus in hospital.’
Set in five acres of grounds, including a peace garden, the complex started life as Diplocks Cottages in 1936 as a memorial to Caleb Diplock, a wealthy Polegate resident. The twelve cottages were constructed for ‘poor and needy’ people living within three miles of the parish church. In 1945 some of Caleb’s distant relatives succeeded in contesting his will and the cottages were put up for sale.
The homes were saved through the help of the Bernhard Baron Trust, set up in memory of the cigarette magnate and philanthropist, and other generous donors. They were renamed and first opened their doors to evacuees made homeless during the second world war.
Managed under the trusteeship of Friends, today the homes comprise twenty-four individual cottages and thirty-four en-suite bed-sitting rooms for individuals and couples from all religions and backgrounds.
Janice Andrews said that all the board of trustees are Quakers, as are nine of the sixty residents.
Comments
Please login to add a comment
