News
Hundreds of pensioners take part in Nationwide Retirement Village relay
- Friday, 12 April 2013
Hundreds of older people from The ExtraCare Charitable Trust’s retirement villages and schemes across the country are joining together to celebrate their passion for life recently.
Events at Shenley Wood Village and Lovat Fields Village in Milton Keynes launched the Charity’s new Passion for Life Relay, inspired by the success of last year's Olympic Torch Relay. The Relay will run until July and will include residents from all 31 of ExtraCare’s retirement villages and smaller housing schemes.
Even future residents from ExtraCare’s Hagley Road Village, opening in Birmingham in October, will be involved, meeting up with residents from Wolverhampton and then travelling on to New Oscott Village, the Charity’s first Birmingham retirement village.
Instead of carrying an Olympic torch, residents will carry a mayoral-style chain, listing the names of all of ExtraCare’s locations across the country.
While taking part in the relay, each retirement village will also take part in an activity with a school or youth group, and also meet up with another older person's group for an activity.
Tour of duty
- Friday, 12 April 2013
Tourists in the historic city of Bath are being offered tours - led by HOMELESS people.
The Secret City tours will take place in unusual historical locations and will be solely staffed by guides who sleep rough.
It is hoped the tours, which launched this week, will raise awareness of homelessness in the Somerset city.
Lead guide Alex Kirzsan, 46, was on the streets for more than three years but now lives a hostel in the city.
The Big Issue seller, who often stands by Bath Abbey with his German Shepherd Harley, said the tours were a "second chance" for him.
Age UK responds to ONS report on older people and loneliness
- Thursday, 11 April 2013
In response to the ONS report ‘Measuring National Well-being – Older people and loneliness, 2013’, published recently, Michelle Mitchell, Charity Director General at Age UK, said:
“All the evidence shows that it is the over 80s who are the most likely to be lonely. As we get older, we are more likely to suffer illness and disability which can prevent us from getting out and about, and people’s social networks often shrink due to life-changing events such as retirement and bereavement which can increase the risk of becoming lonely.
A crown estate
- Tuesday, 09 April 2013
A stunning stately home which is up for sale really is fit for royalty - it used to belong to Henry VIII AND Elizabeth I.
Horton Priory is a superb Grade I Listed building of Special Architectural Interest and Historic Note.
The 11-bedroom property was built in the early 1100s and is among the UK's oldest homes, boasting an incredible ownership history.
It was owned by Henry I before being run as a Clunaic monastery until the 1500s.
But then Henry VIII seized ownership of Horton Priory following the dissolution of the monasteries.
Rage turner
- Tuesday, 09 April 2013
A traffic warden's lost notebook has revealed the catalogue of abuse received in just one morning - including being called an ''asshole'' a "w*nker" and told to "go f*ck yourself".
The lost pocket book was dropped by the parking official in the street and picked up by an eagle-eyed member of the public.
It details the "tons of abuse" the warden was subjected to by "grumpy" drivers during a four hour period - including having to flee a "seven-and-a-half-foot giant".
Lord of the manners
- Tuesday, 09 April 2013
A kind-hearted lord who looked after a tiny British island for a quarter of a century and welcomed around 30,000 people into his home each year has died aged 94.
Lord St Levan was custodian of St Michael's Mount - a tidal island off the coast of Penzance, Cornwall, which dates back to the 12th Century.
He welcomed thousands of tourists into his remote family home each year, insisting it was his duty and describing the guests he met during his 25 years there as "wonderful".
Born John Francis Arthur St Aubyn in London in 1919, he took part in the evacuation of British soldiers from Dunkirk in 1940 and was in command of an escort ship during the 1944 D Day landings.
Up in arms
- Monday, 08 April 2013
Residents in a posh Cotswolds village are fighting to save the historic name of their local pub - after it was changed to the "tacky" title of 'The Muddy Duck' by a new owner.
A group of campaigners in Monkton Farleigh, Wilts., have started a petition to stop the Kings Arms being re-named.
The moniker was changed last week when its owner went into business with another pub called The Muddy Duck in the nearby village of Hethe, Oxon.
More than 140 locals have already signed a petition about the change, with campaigners slamming the new name as "tacky" and "not linked to the village".
Return from Oz
- Monday, 08 April 2013
A man who was shipped to Australia by social services at the age of eight has finally returned to Britain 63 years later - to be reunited with the family he never met.
Bill Stokes lived with his mother in Cornwall but was taken from home by social services when she was deemed unfit to look after him.
He was then shipped off to Fairbridge Farm school in Pinjarra, Western Australia, where he was regularly beaten and whipped.
Bill was one of thousands of youngsters deported to Oz by councils in the UK who deemed them to expensive to look after.
Heart Wren-ching tale
- Thursday, 04 April 2013
The first ever woman to win the British Empire Medal for bravery has broken 70 years of silence to describe for the first time how she rescued a pilot from a crashed plane during World War Two.
Beth Hutchinson, 92, was just 24 when she picked up the gong for dragging the man from the burning wreckage with "complete disregard for her own safety".
She was on driving patrol at a remote Scottish outpost in 1943 when the Swordfish plane came down and she rushed to the scene alone.
The pilot was already dead but brave Beth pulled the co-pilot, a Fleet Air Arm observer, from the burning wreckage as explosions scattered burning debris all around them.
