A care home is celebrating the addition of a new retro sweet shop which is every bit as sweet and colourful as the residents themselves.
Field View Care Home in Blackhall Colliery recently finished work on their traditional sweet shop and celebrated in style by hosting a grand opening for residents and families.
Residents and guests were invited to try their hand at popcorn and candy floss making before treating themselves to a pick-and-mix from the shelves of traditional treats and from the hand-made sweet cart dubbed “Sweet Field Treats”.
Joanne Chambers from Sweet Dreams, a traditional sweet shop in Peterlee, County Durham, donated old-fashioned sweet jars and supplied Field View with many of the traditional sweets on offer such as mint humbugs, liquorice, and pear drops.
It will also double as an activities room and can be used for hosting events such as birthday parties and fetes.
The shop has been a labour of love by the care home’s maintenance man Ian Noble who painted and decorated the room and built the sweet cart by hand.
The idea for the sweet shop came from Field View’s Care Manager Michelle Howarth: “We are delighted to have opened our vintage sweet shop and think that it is a wonderful addition to Field View.”
Our vintage sweet shop will improve our clients’ sense of choice and independence, as well as stimulate memories with tastes of the past.
We also hope that the store will enhance the lives of our residents living with dementia through reminiscence therapy and allowing them to maintain their freedom of choice, dignity and individualism.”
