Springwood House Residential Home

26/08/2026

Despite the torrential rain outside this afternoon, we were determined to keep a little bit of summer going! ☔️🍓☀️

Our residents spent the afternoon filling and decorating flan bases with lots of fresh fruit to create their own summer fruit flans. 🍓🥝🍊

They went down a treat at teatime — we’re eking out those summer activities for as long as we possibly can! 💛

What’s your favourite fruit to have on a flan? 🍓

25/08/2026

🌊 Beside the Seaside – Barbara’s Memories 🌊

Our reminiscence theme this week is ‘Beside the Seaside’, and this morning Barbara shared some wonderful memories of family holidays from her childhood.

Before the war, Bridlington was a favourite destination, but during the war years the east coast wasn’t considered a safe place to holiday. Instead, like many other families from Derby, Barbara and her family headed to Rhyl.

They stayed in a guesthouse, with Grandma and Grandad coming along too. Holidays were rather different then — families bought their own food and were each given one shelf in the pantry cupboard to keep their provisions! Barbara also remembers days on the beach and, of course, donkey rides. 🫏🏖️

But it’s Bridlington that Barbara remembers most fondly. ❤️

This treasured photograph shows Barbara’s mum on the promenade in Bridlington. Barbara remembers the sea air as “bracing” and how well it made them feel. The family would sometimes head to the coast after a period of ill health and return home feeling revived by the seaside air. 🌊

One little photograph, and so many memories. 🥰

Where did you go on your childhood seaside holidays — and what do you remember most? We’d love to hear your memories in the comments. 💙

25/08/2026

21/08/2026

❤️ World Senior Citizens Day ❤️

Today we’re celebrating the wonderful people who make Springwood House what it is — our residents 🥰

Every person who lives here has a lifetime of stories, memories, achievements, friendships and experiences behind them, and we feel incredibly privileged to get to know the people behind those stories.

From the photographs and memories shared with us, to the laughter, conversations and little moments that fill our days, our residents continue to teach us that getting older certainly doesn’t mean becoming any less interesting ❤️

So today, on World Senior Citizens Day, we simply want to say how incredibly lucky we are to share our days with such a remarkable group of people 🥹

Here’s to our Springwood family and to lives very well lived, with plenty more memories still to make. 🥂❤️

21/08/2026

💅 Friday pampering! 💅

We’ve had the lovely Louise with us today for her monthly visit, giving our residents’ nails a little TLC 💕

There were plenty of colours to choose from, along with lots of chatting and catching up while everyone enjoyed a relaxing manicure 💅 ✨

A lovely way to start the weekend! 💅🥰

20/08/2026

It’s usually Exercise with Jody on a Thursday morning, but with Jody enjoying a well-earned holiday, we welcomed a familiar face instead 👀

The lovely Corinna, who many of you will know from our dance sessions, stepped in to keep everyone moving 💃

Lots of gentle movement, plenty of smiles and, most importantly, a lovely way to start our Thursday ☺️

A few photos and videos from this morning… 📸

19/08/2026

One thing that came up again and again in our conversations today was the hope that these treasured photographs — and the stories behind them — will be passed down to the next generation ❤️

Perhaps that is what makes photographs so special. They allow a moment, a person and a story to live on long after the moment itself has passed.

“We take photographs as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.” 📸

A lovely thought to end our World Photography Day at Springwood House ❤️

19/08/2026

📸 World Photography Day: Resident Focus – Frances

We’re ending World Photography Day with a little glimpse into the life of our lovely Frances. ❤️

This afternoon, Frances and I spent time looking through her incredible collection of photograph albums. They are carefully organised by decade and, wonderfully, Frances has captioned the photographs herself over the years. They really are a piece of family history — and an amazing record of a life well lived.

Amongst them, we found this beautiful photograph of Frances at the beginning of her career. She first trained as a nurse in Birmingham before moving to Sheffield, where she went on to train as a midwife. And can we just take a moment to appreciate how wonderful she looks in her uniform! 🥰

But photographs weren’t the only things that brought back memories this afternoon…

Frances also introduced me to Teddy and Joey, two very special companions who are both over 80 years old. 🧸❤️

Even better, Frances made their little clothes herself when she was only around eight years old — and they’ve stayed with her all these years.

Photographs, handwritten captions, childhood toys… sometimes the most precious pieces of someone’s story are the things they’ve carefully kept along the way.

Thank you for sharing some of yours with us, Frances. ❤️

19/08/2026

📸 World Photography Day – Through Their Eyes 📸

For part of our World Photography Day celebrations, we asked our residents to choose something meaningful to them, photograph it, and share the story behind their choice.

🌺 Rita chose this beautiful painting, which hangs in her room at Springwood House.

The painting was created by Rita’s uncle in 1989, making it far more than just a lovely piece of artwork. It’s a special family keepsake, painted by someone she knew and loved, and something she has chosen to keep close to her all these years ❤️

19/08/2026

📸 World Photography Day – My Favourite Photograph

This morning we asked our residents to choose a favourite photograph from their rooms and tell us the story behind it. Who is in it? Where was it taken? And why is it special to them?

We heard some wonderful stories… ❤️

📷 Barbara shared a photograph from her days serving with the Red Cross, when she was called upon to volunteer at the old Derbyshire Royal Infirmary during particularly busy periods.

❤️ Mary chose a treasured portrait of her husband, Arthur, which he sent to her with a handwritten message at the bottom.

💃 Hilary took us to the dance floor at the famous Blackpool Tower Ballroom!

❤️ Margaret chose a beautiful photograph of her dear mum, which she still keeps close.

📖 Patricia brought out a wonderful family album containing generations of memories — even photographs of her great-great-grandparents! We also spotted her father in his fishmonger’s shop and couldn’t believe the prices of the fish!

⛏️ Kate chose a photograph I already knew very well — her father standing in their garden on his way to the colliery. Kate and I have chatted about this photograph many times before, and I could listen to her stories all day.

🏖️ Ann chose a lovely photograph of herself as a little girl enjoying a day at the seaside.

One photograph can hold an entire story. What a lovely morning we’ve had hearing some of ours. ❤️📸