Parkfield Nursing Home Receives £10000 Lottery Grant

Residents at Parkfield House Nursing Home are celebrating after being awarded a funding pot of £10,000 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund for its “A Portrait of Parkfield” project.

Working closely with creative ageing charity Equal Arts, the group of residents – known as the Parkfield Peckers – will take part in weekly creative workshops with professional artists to explore the lives of former residents and history of the home in Uxbridge.

Caron Sanders-Crook, Parkfield’s operations manager said: “Residents and staff are extremely excited and can’t wait to get started!

“We feel incredibly privileged to be awarded this grant and are totally inspired to delve into the heritage of Parkfield House and our surrounding areas, to see what we can learn, share and preserve. The project will help us to strengthen existing relationships within the community and build new links.”

Throughout the year-long project, residents will develop relationships within the community with Oak Farm Library, Glebe Primary School and Hillingdon Council. Together they will create portraits, poetry and photographs documenting their findings, ahead of an exhibition at Uxbridge’s Civic Centre.

Equal Arts’ Hannah Wood, who is supporting the group with weekly workshops, said: “There is a huge interest and enthusiasm for exploring heritage and love discussing the areas they grew up in and how they’ve made us who we are.

“We’ve been inspired to delve into the history of the area after looking at the many books written by resident Philip who sadly passed away this year. Many residents have their roots here and have vivid memories of how the area has changed over the years. The project is a fantastic opportunity to creatively capture the history of the community.”

Their discoveries will be shared on social media with exhibitions at the civic centre, library, and school.

Parkfield residents are very excited too. Audrey Chambers said: “It is wonderful to do something different and it will be lovely to link up with Glebe School and see the schoolchildren!”