A historic home in Wrexham is celebrating 60 years of caring for older people.
Hillbury House was built in 1864 on five acres of land on the south west of the city for local businessman John Bury.
It became a care home in 1965 when it was taken over by the Catholic Order of the Sisters of Nazareth who ran it until 2005 as Nazareth House when it became part of the Pendine Park care organisation founded by Mario Kreft MBE and his wife, Gill.
Pendine Park is now celebrating its 40th anniversary but Hillbury has been looking after Wrexham people even longer and has a unique history of its own, according to Mario.
He said: “It was built in 1864 for John Bury who was well known locally and was one of the founders of the Wrexham War Memorial Hospital.
“In building the house they dug into a Bronze Age burial mound and found a number of artefacts which were given to the Wrexham Museum.
“Gill and I were looking for somewhere to open a care home in 1985 because we wanted a place suitable for our elderly grandparents which would provide the level of care we wanted for them.
“A property in Llandudno was set up but it fell through at the last minute and Gwern Alyn became available in Wrexham which was another of the areas we were looking.
“Converting Gwern Alyn into a care home was the start of the Pendine story and choosing Wrexham was the right decision for us.”
Gwern Alyn is next door to Hillbury which became available in 2003 and opened under the Pendine banner in 2005.
Both care homes are run by manager Cindy Clutton, who began her own career in care in 1982 aged just 15, working at weekends and in the school holidays at Nazareth House, as Hillbury was then called.
She said: “My mum was there and she had always worked in care and I went there when I was still in school and I enjoyed it so when I finished school I went on to take a YTS – Youth Training Scheme – in care and started with Clwyd County Council in their home at Wren’s Nest in Rhosddu.
“I joined Pendine in 2000 at Gwern Alyn and they took over Nazareth House and I became acting manager of Gwern Alyn and Hillbury and the rest is history.
“Mario had encouraged me to my Level Five management course and gave me the support I needed and I’ve been at the two homes ever since.
“I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s a challenging job but it’s also very rewarding when you see the residents all smiling and happy.
“I still love coming to work each day.”
Mario: “We started with 14 residents at Gwern Alyn and now we’re up to 440 at our nine care homes in Wrexham and Caernarfon.
“Later this year we will welcome our 6,000th resident and at the same time we employ 864 people and what we do supports the NHS.
“Four decades on and Pendine Park has become a very, very important community asset for Wrexham and 10 years ago we opened Bryn Seiont Newydd in Caernarfon.
“We were the very first in the UK to deliver what in those days were NVQs – National Vocational Qualifications – although the skills you need as a carer are not something everyone can do and you don’t really learn them at a college.
“It’s about empathy and emotional intelligence and you probably either have or don’t have that by the time you leave primary school.
“So many people can’t do it or won’t do it but these are very important skills and it’s a sad indictment of our society that they’re so undervalued.”
Mario and Gill are both passionate about the arts which have become a “golden thread” running through daily life at all their care homes.
They became the first care organisation in Wales to employ an artist in residence and 30 years later the person they appointed, Sarah Edwards, is still their working with them as a consultant, along with a musician in residence, a creative practitioner and an army of enrichment co-ordinators.
The couple have also launched the Pendine Arts and Communities Trust which supports a host of community and arts-related activities, including the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod where they sponsor the Pendine International Voice of the Future competition and the North Wales International Music Festival where they sponsor the Pendine Young Musician of Wales competition.
Gill, a chartered accountant, also set up the influential Wrexham Business Professionals group to promote regional prosperity and shine a light on the enterprise and expertise that exists in the region.
Meanwhile, Mario has also found time to become a fearless campaigner for the social care sector, founding both Care Forum Wales, which represents around 500 independent providers, and the Wales Care Awards, to recognise frontline care workers.
