At Abberton, we are delighted to have a minibus for the use of our residents and the local community.
Out and about in our minibus
Residents have the opportunity to join in excursions. We have ventured out, in spite of the chilly weather, wrapped up with travel blankets and coats.
Visiting Tiptree
We had a wonderful trip to The Wilkins and Sons Tiptree Jam factory. https://www.tiptree.com/index.php/tiptreetroom
A change of scenery, good company, and excellent coffee and scones made for a thoroughly enjoyable morning. We looked round the visitor centre and learnt about where the saying “getting caught red handed” comes from. All the old machinery on display and pictures showing farming history from Essex conjured a lot of memories.
Residents shared stories, we laughed about our jam making disasters and successes and sampled our favourite preserves.
Visiting Abberton Reservoir
This is always a hit with residents. We wanted to visit, before the end of winter, to see the over-wintering birds. These include ducks, geese and swans, which visit in their thousands. The visitor centre has a huge curved observation area overlooking the reservoir. It is ideal for our residents to access and watch the bird life from the warmth of the cafe.
We will be back in the summer to see the butterflies!
Visiting the garden centre
Perrywood Garden Centre is local to us and a popular destination. It’s a great place to browse through plants and has a gift section our residents like. The coffee shop is also great.
Helping the local community
We collect school children and scout groups in our minibus, so they can visit residents. We have a wonderful bond through the FaNs network with Langenhoe Primary School. The children visited recently and got to meet Taz, a gorgeous whippet therapy dog. You can see from the picture how everyone enjoyed themselves.
We also use the minibus as a community bus. We volunteered to take this on when the previous community bus stopped operating. This keeps going a vital service to the local community, enabling people to maintain their independence.