Care home opens retro sweet shop to stimulate memories with tastes from the past

A care home in Blackhall Colliery, County Durham, has opened a vintage sweet shop decorated in candyfloss colours, designed to trigger residents’ memories with tastes from the past.

The idea for the sweet shop came from Field View’s care manager Michelle Howarth, who said: “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.”

Residents can try their hand at making popcorn and candy floss and treat themselves to a pick-and-mix from the shelves of traditional treats and from the hand-made sweet cart dubbed Sweet Field Treats.

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.

It will also double as an activities room and can be used for hosting events such as birthday parties and fetes.

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.

Field View care home is run by Countryside Care Homes Ltd.

click here for more details or to contact Field View