Residents discover the perfect antidote to lockdown

It’s the perfect antidote to months of Covid-induced lockdown.

Residents at Allonsfield House nursing home, in Campsea Ashe, near Woodbridge, can step out the door and take a short stroll to their very own smallholding.

Its latest arrivals, silver Appleyard miniature duck and a range of native breed chickens and bantams, are the talk of the home!

And residents have loved helping farm manager Mason Worsfold-Gregg plant vegetables and strawberry plants in raised beds.

The unusually frosty nights of late April and May have held the plants back but it is hoped that a range of vegetables, including broccoli, lettuces, beetroot and radish, will be ready for the Kingsley Healthcare home’s Suffolk Day celebration on June 21.

Mr Worsfold-Gregg, who studied biology and conservation and previously worked at a therapy farm at a special needs school, said: “In the coming weeks, as we build the pens, we will be introducing Norfolk horn sheep, golden Guernsey goats and a British Saddleback pig to the farm.”

Resident Lila Ballard moved to Allonsfield House from her home in Hampshire, overlooking the Solent, so the Suffolk countryside is a new experience for her, but she said it had been a delightful one.

She said: “I love walking every day and the farm is brilliant. I have watched it develop week by week since I have been here.”

The project has seen the site come full circle as Allonsfield House was built as a farm in the 17th century.

Home manager Judith Morgan-Worrall said: “It is so good for both the mental and physical health of the residents to get outside in the fresh air and enjoy the farm. Many of them grew up in rural Suffolk.

“It’s also going to supply us with lovely fresh fruit and vegetables.”

She said Allonsfield Farm was intended as a resource for the whole community and they would be getting local schools and groups involved.

“We already have people interested in becoming volunteers,” she said.

 Find out more about Allonsfield House care home