Horley care home steals show at annual carnival

Local care home residents have been praised after dressing to impress at Horley Carnival.

Residents from Care UK’s Amherst House, on Court Lodge Road, bagged a top prize for their incredible efforts, having worked for weeks on their creative costumes.

Horley Carnival is held every summer and enables the community to come together to celebrate. This year’s theme was ‘myths and legends’, with the event featuring magical displays, live music and spectacular dance performances.

Every year, residents at Amherst House take part in the parade, taking time to create bright and beautiful costumes to wear for the big march through the town centre. This year, Amherst House's efforts helped them scoop the third prize in the Horley Carnival Prize competition at the parade. 

Resident Ellen Lansdowne, 93, said: “We look forward to this every year – the colours, the sense of community spirit.

“The whole event has a real family feel. There is a lot of thought, time and effort that goes into the costumes for the whole Horley community to come together.”

Cristina Cristea, General Manager at Amherst House, said: “It’s been another great year at the carnival, and it’s a real highlight of our year at Amherst House. The residents really look forward to it and end up having the best time in their fancy dress. 

“Wonderful events such as the carnival bring many residents a sense of purpose and encourage them to socialise, as they spend weeks working hard creating and decorating their clothes and wheelchairs. Winning third place was a lovely surprise – hopefully next year we can achieve first place!”

Amherst House has been designed to deliver the very best standards of care and to enable residents to live active and fulfilled lives in a luxury environment. The home provides full-time residential, nursing and dementia care, as well as short-term respite care, and has its own cinema room, pub and hair and beauty salon.