Activities at Harton Grange Care Home

Harton Grange  marked the anniversary of Victory over Japan Day in style with a special invitation to attend the local Town Hall with other veterans to see the unveiling of the unforgotten Army Statue for the 80th anniversary of VJ Day. This marks a significant milestone in history.

This day is a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by millions of soldiers and civilians during the war. As we reflect on this 80th anniversary, we honour the bravery and resilience of those who fought and remember the lessons learned from this pivotal moment in history.

Walking alongside Daft as a Brush, Cancer Patient Care Charity and incorporating their Annual VJ Anniversary Memorial Walk, the service took place outside the Town Hall, South Shields at 10.45am on 15 August 2025. This also included the unveiling of “The Forgotten Army” statue, gifted to South Tyneside by the Daft as a Brush Cancer Patient Care Charity to mark the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day.
 

We have had some visitors at Harton Grange with Joy, our Head Chef, bringing along her lovely cats, Bella and Saffy. We all loved playing with the cats and holding and petting them. 

A lot of the residents that live at Harton Grange love animals and had cats of their own over the years, so it brought back so many memories. Thank you, Joy, for a memorable morning that we will all remember.

What a wonderful afternoon we had with Andy's Animal Adventures, who came to visit us for an amazing afternoon showing us some animals from all around the world. 

There were lizards, geckos, chinchilla, snakes, tortoises and Rio a blue and yellow Macaw. We got to handle the animals, and it was so lovely to spend time with them. Thank you so much Andy for a lovely afternoon, and we can wait to see more animals next time.

Happy Father's Day from Harton Grange. Our gentlemen enjoyed a full English breakfast, a bar of chocolate and cards to celebrate the day. Thank you, Liz, for making such a lovely breakfast. After breakfast, we asked all of them what their favourite thing about being a Dad was. 

We want to say Happy Father's Day to all the Dads, Father-in-Laws, Step Dads, and father figures out there. We thank you for all you do.

We went along to the Armed Forces Day Event at South Shields. Dennis and Les both loved the morning and we got to meet other veterans, speak about old memories and watch the parade. It was a lovely morning even though it was a bit windy. In 1941 went to sign up to go to fight in World War 2 but was told he was of more use to the industry as he worked in the dock, so he sign up to the home guard. 

Les served in the army and did his national serve which he said was fantastic. We want to send our deepest thanks all those and the families of those who have served and are currently serve in the armed forces. The sacrifice you all make are appreciated and those lost will never be forgotten.

Well Mamma Mia, what a lovely afternoon. We spent it dancing and singing along to ABBA and all the disco hits. We want to thank Chris for a wonderful afternoon and for taking us all back to the 70's. 

We all got dressed up in our best 1970’s get up and loved dancing along to the best hits from the 70’s with Dancing Queen and Stayin Alive getting us all up to boogie.    

Harton Grange won the Foundation Hamper for raising the highest amount of money supporting their Regional Director, Dannie Tsoneva, who took part in a recent fundraising event for the foundation where she competed against other Regional Directors at a Cook Off. 

The cheque was presented by two residents, Irene and Dennis, who recently celebrated becoming 102 and 100 respectively. 

On May 19th, Dennis celebrated his 100th birthday. We spent the day celebrating with entertainment and fun. Dennis had a lot of visits from family and friends and received his telegram from the King as well as gifts and cards. 

He says his secret to a long life is hard work and that he "never missed a day’s graft in his life". Dennis worked on the docks at the Middle Dock in South Shields and had a huge fascination and love of the history of South Shields and its people. Dennis, you are a truly marvellous man, and we hope you enjoyed the day and your evening out with family.    

It has been a busy time at Harton Grange over the easter and on the 16th April we held our Easter Fete to raise money for our residents fund as well as to have fun. Joy and Liz had a lovely selection of cakes for sale with fruit and cheese scones as well as cornflake cakes and biscuits. 

We also had a tombola where a some of our residents won some lovely prizes with Dorothy needing a back to carry them all in. Joy also knitted some wonderful blankets with animals on them that were perfect for new-borns. It was a wonderful day filled with laughter and lots and lots of cake.  

Residents at Harton Grange have been busy getting their hands dirty. We have a lot of plans for our garden and will be growing stuff like potatoes, carrot and beetroots in May. 

But with the weather being so nice we got a head start with our tomatoes plants that we have grew from seed and have been tending to them in our activity room. But now as spring is setting in we have gotten a new greenhouse and have been busy potting them up and putting them in there new home. 

Sheila and Annie both said they used to let their husband do all the gardening but they were shocked at how much they enjoyed potting the tomatoes. Now we need to wait till they grow and we can enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Some of our residents at Harton Grange attended the Connectfest at Temple Park with Equal Arts a local charity. We worked with Neil who is a joiner and makes the most wonderful creations with wood. We decided we wanted to make some bug houses for the winter and some new feeders for our chickens. 

David, who lives at Harton Grange has a fantastic time as he used to be joiner and loves to work with would, he said the smell of the wood and the sawdust brought back a lot of memories. We met a lot of different people at the event and have made some new friends who we home to see again soon. 

Bev, our Deputy Manager has received a prestigious 20 Year Service Award.

Bev, received a bouquet of beautiful fresh blooms and her award by Judith, General Manager who said: “We’re delighted to be celebrating 20 years of loyal service with Bev. She has demonstrated her dedication and loyalty to this home and its residents year after year. I speak for all of us here at Harton Grange when I say that I’m looking forward to many more years of working with Beverley!"

Congratulations, Bev!

At Harton we enjoyed a lovely afternoon of magic from the Steve Bell Magic Show. There was a lot to see with things vanishing and reappearing, Steve bending a coin with only his fingertips and a magic key that moved without anyone touching it. 

Lots of us participated and were assistants with various magic tricks. Dot even got a souvenir from Steve as he let her keep the coin that he bent by magic. It was a wonderful day, and we can wait for another show. 

The residents at Harton Grange wanted to brighten up one of the small corridors in the building and bring some of the outside in. 

We decided on making it into an indoor garden as it is a warm place with lots of sunlight, so just like a greenhouse. So far we have planted tomatoes, sugar peas and some strawberries and are eagerly awaiting to see the fruits and veg sprout and grow. 

When they have grown enough, we plant by taking them into the garden and then start growing more plants in our new indoor garden. 

We have our own bingo club and gardening club, but residents at Harton Grange wanted to try something different, so we created the Harton Astronomy Club. 

We meet every 2 weeks and do space-related activities. Our first meeting was to create our very first solar system model to hang in our activity room. All the residents loved the afternoon, and we learnt about all the different planets and how they are different from each other. 

When the clouds clear and the stars are out, we can’t wait to get our telescope in the garden to take some wonderful photographs of the universe.