Residents’ meetings are a high point of every month – over a glass of Sherry our Registered Manager, Debbie Spokes listens to the thoughts, concerns and ideas of what our Residents think of their Home, Country Lodge. It is always fascinating and leads to some great changes which benefit all. Wheelchair paths around the garden have been requested at nearly every Resident Meeting in the last three years – a desire to feel part of the garden, not just to look at it. Then of course we have our wonderful relatives. Garden accessible bedrooms are the number one request we have when looking for new rooms. From these two desires came the dream of a new ‘barn wing’ housing 5 large bedrooms with patio doors opening onto the garden and a newly landscaped garden with wheelchair paths around its entirety.
Why does our nursing home need the expansion?
The next question was what else do we need? We knew we needed more storage to reduce the cluttered look of the home, a training space for staff to meet this weekly need (currently held in the dining room), more entertainment areas for Residents and relatives, an office (previously in a garden shed) and then there was the issue that Residents were having their hair done in part of the lounge. ECE Architects were used to draw up the initial design and did a fantastic job working with South Down National Park Authority to design a Sussex Style Barn containing 5 bedrooms, an office, a hair salon and upstairs a roof space containing storage and a staff area which could be used for training.
Working without disrupting our Residents
Then came the issue of disruption – what was the fastest way we could build with minimal disruption to our Residents? By chance we came across a company in Darlington, Yorkshire who were disrupting the building industry by building offsite almost to completion, then transferring the new building in modules and craning it into position on site. We visited their set up in Darlington and were convinced it was a fantastic way forward. Saville Jones Architects were brought on to draw up the detail of the design and Lizard Landscapes were chosen to design the garden with Residents.
It’s been an exciting design process, involving so many specialists as the Council have specified – on the structure, the environment, the sustainability, the ecology, and most important of all, our staff influencing the workability of the building to meet the modern needs of caring.
Timeline of our nursing home in Worthing expansion
Ground works have begun and will be complete by the end of March, and the new building will be craned into position by Moduloft the first week of April all being well. The lounge and dining room extension will then begin in April together with the insertion of two new dormers of first floor bedrooms in the original barn building to generate better views from those bedrooms. Garden planting will begin in April and run through to May ready for opening in June 2022.
We are looking forward to having these extra rooms open, but if you would like to discuss our current availability please call our Manager, Ms Debbie Spokes on 01903 919775.
Why it was important to fit the building into its Worthing surroundings
I’m currently writing this whilst traveling on a superfast train to Darlington, viewing from the train window the beautiful and vast green landscapes of England which remind me how important it is that the new building must fit into its natural landscape and also nurture those it is built to house. Will and I’s hope is that by investing this huge sum into Country Lodge that the future of our Residents will involve more comfort in their care, more dignity in their pampering, more ambience in their family time, whether indoors or outdoors, and more beautiful garden sightlines to feed their souls as well as more support to those carrying out their care.
I leave you with our new garden design and the new layout:
Interested in our new rooms?
Come and visit our nursing home in Worthing to see the improvements we are making.
Give us a call on 01903 919775 to arrange a viewing, or email manager@countrylodgenursing.co.uk.