Richard Carr-Gomm
Abbeyfield is the result of one man’s vision and his determination to provide accommodation for older people who were living alone and suffering from loneliness and a host of associated problems such as poor nutrition, insecurity and depression.
In the early 1950s Richard Carr-Gomm felt a calling to assist the older residents of Bermondsey, a poor dockside town near London. He eventually convinced the Council to accept his offer as an unpaid home helper, cleaning Council tenancies.
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Carr-Gomm soon discovered he was often their only visitor and these lonely older people were always willing to sit and share a cup of tea and eager for conversation. He came to the conclusion that their greater need was not home help but simple companionship.
Carr-Gomm then resigned his commission as a Major in the forces and used his gratuity of £250 as a deposit to purchase a house and invited four older, lonely people to come and share the house with him. The arrangement was simple. Each would furnish their own room and contribute to the costs of food, electricity and heating. Carr-Gomm would use the shared income to meet household costs including food, undertake shopping and cook the two main meals of the day which were taken together in the dining room. He encouraged the neighbours in the street to help around the house with care of finances and, importantly, to befriend the residents and to provide them transport on outings and social activities.
The work of "the cleaning major" became widely known. Municipal Authorities and Church groups in other localities invited him to their area to promote his housing solution. As public funds were becoming available it was necessary to establish a charity for the management of finances and ownership of property. As Carr-Gomm and his associates met for committee meetings in a house in Abbeyfield Road, a road leading to a disused Medieval Abbey, they named their charity ‘Abbeyfield’.
Christopher Buxton
In 1957, the Abbeyfield Society was formally established and, in 1959, the involvement of Christian Teamwork, a volunteer group of London businessmen headed by Christopher Buxton, led to the creation of a national network to acquire and run the growing number of Abbeyfield houses. The Abbeyfield movement became international in 1988 as societies were established in Australia, Canada, South Africa, the Netherlands and Italy.Fifty years later there are now nearly 560 Abbeyfield Societies in the United Kingdom managing almost 900 Abbeyfield Houses providing accommodation for more than 8,500 residents through the support of thousands of volunteers.
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