Resident Stories

‘I think all people should look to their future,’ she says. ‘Even when you are old you have a future. That’s why I came here. ‘

Victor believes the best thing about Lark Hill Village is the friendships: ‘The camaraderie you can get if you join in, but I don’t join in enough,’ he says.

It was nearly two years ago that I first heard about the Village. It was entirely by chance, really – at the time I was working as an invigilator at City College. One of my colleagues lived in Earlsdon and she asked if anyone had seen the hoardings. She said it sounded very grand, a retirement village with lots of facilities. I thought it sounded good and I came home and talked to Roy – I didn’t know what he’d think, but he was very enthusiastic.

Everybody is friendly, even if you don’t know them you can say “hello” or “good morning”. Everybody is supportive of each other. If you have a problem, you only need to knock on someone’s door and you’ll be greeted by a friendly face and vice versa, we’d welcome our fellow residents to knock on our door in a time of need. Although we’re a community of 300, we live in little avenues, so we have a built a very supportive network just in our avenue.

Linda sold her house and move back to Earlsdon where she had lived before for nearly 20 years. "It's lovely," she says. "I can walk into town and get to the train station. It will be a lot easier for me."

We used to live in a 4 bedroom house and it was far more than we needed. We saw the village advertised and felt that it was a good idea and after looking around we thought it was wonderful.

We all join in, getting to grips with the instruments, with several of the residents using the baton to conduct the musicians and us. Gwen always has the chimes, her lovely face lights up, her smile!

The staff are absolutely fantastic. They’re a delight to associate with and since we’ve been here they could not have been more helpful. I’ve got nothing but compliments for them, and they do it with a smile as well which is so important!

Residents at Shenley Wood Village in Milton Keynes were keeping their spirits up during the national Covid-19 crisis, celebrating Ted's 100th birthday, who moved to the community from Bletchley.

Now, more than 60 years after they first met, Val and Lynne have both moved to the new Longbridge Retirement Village in Birmingham, where they plan to spend the rest of their lives just a stone’s throw away from each other.

“I moved to the village in January 2018, the last three years have gone so quickly, I have a lovely apartment and friends and couldn’t be happier.''

Yvonne believes moving to the village is an adventure. ‘Neville would have wished me to move, it’s what he would have wanted for me,’ she says. ‘I think we would have closed the door behind us, both equally happy that we were going to the village.