WORCESTER'S longest surviving small residential care home is being forced to shut at the end of the month.

The closure of the exclusive private Avery-Overall Baptist Home in Britannia Square - which celebrated its silver jubilee last year - will leave 17 staff without a job and mean eight residents, aged from 69 to 99, will have to be split up and re-housed.

Managers had to make the decision as they have been unable to carry out essential improvements to the home because of its listed building status.

Trustees broke the news on Monday after a crisis meeting with management company Carlton Care Group.

Social workers and government inspectors are already involved in negotiations to find alternative accommodation.

Manager Carol Onley said news of the closure had been a shock for staff, residents and relatives.

"We're all going round with sore hearts," she added.

"There are no words to sum up the grief being experienced at this time but I hope hundreds of people can look back in praise and thanks. My heartfelt respect is for the residents, relatives and staff and I'm dearly sorry it is no longer financially viable for us to continue our care."

Carole Jenkins, partner in Carlton Care Group, said the decision to close was a bitter pill to swallow.

"In order to achieve regulation standards on room sizes we would need to lose three beds but we cannot move walls," she said.

"What is more, would-be residents have asked us to replace the stair lift with a hydraulic shaft lift. It is impossible to do this work within the listed building constraints and it effectively means the home cannot be modified to attract new residents."

Avery Overall was an old manor house bequeathed

to the Worcester Baptist Church in 1979 and originally used for the ladies of the church who had retired and needed supported living accommodation.

Over the years it has become available to anyone but is still run with a strong Christian ethos.

It is like a death to find that it's closing

RESIDENTS managed to put on a brave face as they spoke of the happy memories they will take with them - but they described the closure as like "a death".

Ninety-year-old Myfanwy Jones, who came to the home in November, talked about the pine cones which she recently collected in the garden which she hopes to take with her as a reminder.

She also recalled the various trips and pantomimes the residents have been treated to and the friendships she has made, as well as the regular visits from pupils at Alice Ottley School in The Tything.

"I've been very happy - it's a very loving, caring place and the staff are cheerful, willing and helpful.

"When my son first brought me here it was amazing to see all these beautiful properties - we're very lucky to have been here."

The home's closure will leave 17 staff without a job and mean eight residents will have to be split up and relocated.

Fellow resident, 99-year-old Dorothy Lowe, has been at the home for 18 months and is going to live in Gloucester with her son David.

However, she said she was sure to keep in touch with everyone she had met there.

"The staff have been terribly kind and the atmosphere's lovely. We're always singing."

Staff were equally stunned by the closure, with senior care assistant Marcelle Smith calling it a 'home from home'.

"You won't find another place like this. The atmosphere is lovely, the ladies are lovely and the manager is lovely," said Mrs Smith. There's never a dull moment. You can walk in at any time and it's full of laughter. We're like one big family."

"It was like a death to find it was closing - you just think you're going to wake up and find it was a

bad dream."

Moving late in life takes its toll

MANY of the elderly residents of Avery-Overall Baptist Home have lived there for many years - with one lady making it her home since 1987.

Moving house at any stage of life is guaranteed to be a stressful experience and there are concerns that this can only be compounded in later years.

The Worcester News reported last year how 86-year-old Maisey Dandey died the day after the decision to close Oaklands nursing home in Battenhall was announced.

Her family in no way blamed her death on the closure but said, despite her dementia, doctors believed she could well have been aware of the "huge, huge sadness" around her.

Magda Praill, chief executive of Age Concern for the two counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, said in her experience it was often the case that when residential homes had to close it was often at short notice.

"To suddenly have to move from one's home is very stressful at the best of times but when frail and vulnerable it makes it worse," she said.

But professionals working in the care sector say everything possible will be done to ensure the Avery Overall residents' rehoming is dealt with in a sensitive manner.

James Hill, chairman of Worcestershire Residential Homes Owners Group, said the closure of small care homes is part of an ongoing trend.

"This is due to the high level of regulations imposed on them by the Commission for Social Care Inspection."

A Worcesteshire Social Services spokesman said it was working with the residents, families and carers to find suitable accommodation.