Cherry Hinton community member names new Cambridge care home

Home news

Oct 26, 2020

A local organisation has won a competition to help name a brand-new care home in Cambridge.

Local historian, Michelle Bullivant, took part in the competition to name the new Care UK home, on Bullen Close, which will open in August 2021.

The competition called for the people who know the area best, its residents, to share suggestions that had a cultural or historical reference to the town.

Michelle inspired the winning name, ‘Heathlands House’, named after the great heath that once ran from the Gog Magog Hills, through Cherry Hinton and up to Hills Road.

Michelle said: “I’m delighted that my idea was chosen as the name of the new Care UK home, and am thrilled that it encompasses the history of the area. The land where the care home is being built would have looked similar to the moors in Yorkshire back in the 1700s, and students at Cambridge University were often told off for riding their horses too fast across the heath to get to Cherry Hinton, which is why I thought Heathlands House would make the perfect name.”

As a reward for coming up with the winning name, Care UK has donated £200 to the Cherry Hinton Local History Society, which will be used to fund a collaborative project between Michelle and the community group. The project will see the creation of a booklet of walking routes for local people wanting to discover more about the hidden history and culture of the Cambridge suburb.

Phillip Steyn, regional director at Care UK, said: “The home naming process is one of the key milestones for a new home, so it was important to involve the community in the decision. All of the names put forward were of a very high quality, but we felt ‘Heathlands House’ really rooted the home in the local area.

“We’re so grateful to everyone that made a name suggestion, and to Michelle for helping select the home’s name – we are looking forward to enjoying the walking routes ourselves and learning more about the history of Cherry Hinton!”

When built, Heathlands House will incorporate space for hobby and leisure activities, and will include its own cinema, hairdressing salon and café. The layout of the building has been designed to configure a series of individual suites, each having a dedicated lounge/dining room to help facilitate the creation of close-knit communities.

For more information about Heathlands House, please visit www.careuk.com/care-homes/heathlands-house-cambridge

For general information about Care UK, please visit careuk.com