Our history
The Abbeyfield Kent Society is part of the Abbeyfield movement, a group of charities who provide care for older people across the UK and overseas.
The first Abbeyfield home was set up in 1955 by Richard Carr-Gomm, who resigned from the army to work unpaid for Bermondsey council after deciding he wanted to help older people. Carr-Gomm used his army gratuity to purchase a terraced house in Bermondsey which, with the help of friends, he converted into four bed-sitting rooms and installed two elderly men and women; working as housekeeper and cook.
Carr-Gomm’s kind-hearted methods for social care soon came to the attention of local authorities and church groups. In 1957 the original group of friends formed a charity and named it after the road where the home was situated, Abbeyfield. By the end of the fifties there were six Abbeyfield Homes in Bermondsey; by 1963 there were 180 throughout Britain.
Homes and societies emerged throughout the country with their own staff, volunteers and Trustees. The Abbeyfield Society evolved into a network of autonomous charities, who all pledged to uphold the Abbeyfield philosophy “to enhance the quality of life for older people”.
It wasn’t until 1967 that Kent got its first Abbeyfield home, when the Rev Tom Rogers set up a home in Gillingham. After that other Abbeyfield homes started to crop up throughout the county; while some remained independent the movement was developing a particularly strong purpose in throughout the Medway towns and the surrounding areas. This was in no small part down to the leadership of Trevor Cox, a volunteer with a strong commercial background, who had brought financial stability to the organisation.
Cox’s leadership proved inspirational in the construction of Rogers House, the first Abbeyfield residential care home in Kent to provide 24-hour care and attention to residents’ personal needs.
By 1999 the movement had developed into the Abbeyfield Medway Valley Society, which included five properties in Rochester, Gillingham and Maidstone.
Robert Barnes, a Medway Valley Trustee who later became Chairman of The Abbeyfield Kent Society, recalls: “We took the view that pooling finances and resources was essential if we were to meet a whole series of challenges which were emerging in social care for the elderly.
“For a start, we were subject to an increasing amount of government regulation, and we were also facing a marked rise in the number of dementia cases among our residents.
“What we needed was a dedicated care home for dementia sufferers, but it was during the mid-90s housing boom, and every site we looked at was snapped up by builders”.
The solution came in 1999, when Kent County Council decided to sell their local authority run care homes; approaching the Medway Valley Society as a potential buyer. The Trustees decided to buy nine of the houses, taking on significant number of houses which needed major investment. It was a remarkable leap for the organisation to make, but the acquisition was finalised in 2000 thanks to a loan from the National Westminster Bank.
Soon after that other Abbeyfield homes from throughout Kent were applying to join; properties from Maidstone, Paddock Wood, Whitstable and Sevenoaks were incorporated into the Medway Valley Society after that. Former Trustee Malcolm Moulton explains “There was a growing recognition that to provide modern, professional standards of care, the financial strength and structure of a larger organisation was necessary.”
In October 2005 to reflect the new nature of the organisation, Medway Valley was renamed as The Abbefield Kent Society. As part of the process new headquarters were set up alongside the River Medway in Cuxton.
Richard Carr-Gomm died in October 2009. By then the Abbeyfield group had evolved from one house in Bermondsey to a worldwide movement, with 700 homes in Britain caring for over 7,500 elderly people; in addition to the 14 different countries around the world.
Presently The Abbeyfield Kent Society is one of the largest independent societies in Britain, with nine residential care homes, six sheltered housing units and two sites for new developments.
It remains firmly founded on Christian principles of mutual caring. Or as Alan Ford, a former company secretary to some of Britain’s biggest companies and a volunteer administrator with an Abbeyfield care home in Whitstable, puts it: “We believe that small is beautiful. We have all been motivated by a care model which is predicated on small homes, where our residents feel valued and comfortable, with fees less than would be charged by a purely commercial, profit-minded organisation, and excellent staff supported by a team of volunteers.”
A philosophy of which Richard Carr-Gomm would surely have approved.