Paul Celebrates 30 Years at Tabley House Nursing Home
The Maintenance Manager at Tabley House Nursing Home was recently presented with a long service award after celebrating 30 years since he first started working at the home.
Paul Gibbon, dubbed “Mr Tabley”, has been working at Tabley House Nursing Home, part of the Cygnet Social Care division, since 1993 and said he felt “honoured” to receive the long service award.
The nursing home, located in Cheshire countryside near Knutsford, is set within a stunning 18th century Palladian style country house. It opened in 1989 as one of Cygnet’s first services. Paul joined the team at Tabley just a few years later in 1993.
At the time he was working as a private decorator and gardener. Looking back Paul reminisces: “I was just in the right place at the right time. I got called in to decorate some of the rooms at a time when the maintenance role had become vacant. I interviewed for the role and was fortunate enough to get it and I haven’t looked back since.”
When Paul started he was the only maintenance staff on site. Today he manages a team of three. He said that the role is so varied that even after all this time no two days are ever the same, whether it be room refurbishments, painting and decorating, maintaining the house’s exterior or liaising with the museum and tea rooms that share the building.
A project that Paul and the team are currently working on is building a new fence around the chapel that adjoins the house and putting down a new flagged path to the chapel entrance.
One of the things that has kept Paul at Tabley so long is the pride and satisfaction he gets in looking after and maintaining a Grade-1 listed building.
On the responsibility of looking after such an historic building Paul said: “It can be challenging, because of the building’s exceptional historical interest it has to be looked after in a particular way and within strict guidelines. That said, I love the building and wouldn’t want to work anywhere else.
“I often get asked whether I’ve ever discovered any secret rooms or passages. I haven’t yet, but you never know!
“Cygnet have also looked after me really well and provided me with lots of training opportunities over the years.”
Karen Lynskey, the Registered Manager of the nursing home, paid tribute to Paul saying: “Paul is Mr Tabley. His knowledge and experience of managing this Grade 1 listed building is outstanding. It was a pleasure to celebrate Paul’s 30 years of employment at Tabley. It was such a fantastic achievement with hopefully many more years to come.”
To mark Paul’s achievement he was presented with a special 30th anniversary plaque, a bouquet of flowers and a bottle of wine by Gareth Williams, Cygnet’s CEO of Social Care services.
Gareth said: “Paul has been an incredibly important asset to the home. It was a real honour for me to be able to go to Tabley House to thank Paul for everything that he has done and I look forward to coming back to present his 40th year and 50th year awards in the future.”
