1950s Car To Help Care Home Residents

A rare 1950s Hillman Minx car is being placed into the garden of a dementia care home in Dorset.

It's to encourage residents at Fernhill care home to remember thinsg from their past.  

The two-tone grey and red beauty, which has American-style tail fins, will be craned into position after being restored, alllowing residents to sit and reminisce inside it.

Colten Care's Managing Director Ian Hudson said ''It will bring back very happy memories to sit inside the car coming to Fernhill. I'm sure it will be the same for many of our residents and it will be a fabulous prompt for recollection and conversation. When people are living with dementia, their long term memory can still be strong and so we actively provide a wide range of memory prompts in our homes and gardens.''       

The operation to install the car involves a lorry-mounted crane, which has been specially-made.

Colten Care’s Transport Manager John Carter, a former Minx owner, said: ''When I saw it in a private garage in Portsmouth it had been off the road for a while and I felt quite sorry for it to be honest. We've given it a full clean-up, tidied up the paint work and thoroughly cleaned out the interior. Residents will now be able to sit inside it in comfort and share their thoughts of yesteryear.''

The Minx is the third vehicle that Colten Care has installed at a dementia care home this year as a prompt for  memory stimulation. In September, a former London taxi was positioned in the memory garden of The Aldbury in Parkstone while in May a Massey Ferguson tractor was given pride of place in the rustic-themed grounds of St Catherines View in Winchester.