New Covid-friendly 'tea room, shop and pub' for Sutton care home

The three Ashmere Nottinghamshire Ltd homes on Priestsic Road previously opened a Covid safe ‘pub’ The Ashmere Arms, where resident and visitors could enjoy a tipple together during visits.

Now Ashmere’s managing director, Claire Sharpe, has developed a vintage tea room and a shop is currently in mid-build.

Sutton Court and Sutton Manor provides residential care, while Sutton Lodge is a specialist dementia facility.

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Claire, whose family have run the homes for more than 20 years, said: “When Covid 19 first struck, I realised garden or outdoor visits were not going to be adequate for my residents and families. I needed to create a destination that was acceptable, warm, inviting and Covid secure.

“We developed The Ashmere Arms, a log cabin in the garden designed as a traditional pub where residents could enjoy safe visits with their families.

"It also provided those residents who needed to ‘get out’ to feel like they had been to a new destination.

“The pub has become so popular that I thought I needed to do something else, so we set about building next door, this time with the theme of a vintage tea room. The projects are unique and quite inspirational.

"The traditional tea room is full of items from the residents’ past and everything has been refurbished to the style.”

The home also reopened its doors to indoor visits from family in line with the Government’s latest guidelines, but Claire says many of the families prefer to use the new visitor rooms.

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