Dementia Village

BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL!

We no longer accept walk-ins for a tour of our dementia village due to staffing arrangements, if you would like a tour, please use the contact details below.

We are now open!

After a few delays in broadcasting the show on Channel 5 we are now able to share this amazing project with you all.

In September 2023 Age UK Wirral embarked on the biggest project we have ever undertaken; we were lucky enough to have been selected from hundreds of charities to take part in the new series of Challenge Anneka.

We started this Challenge with a totally unusable and unsafe garden at the back of our Day Care building we had uneven pathways and an array of out-of-control weeds.

The garden has been on our wish list for as long as we can remember, we back on to Birkenhead Park so it is tranquil, sunny and peaceful, the perfect spot for our Dementia clients to enjoy some time outside, but it was a mess.

The build was a huge Challenge, so much so we didn’t make the Challenge Anneka deadline of 4 days, we had the tail end of a hurricane thrown in for good measure and biblical rain! we did overrun but, in a way, it was better as it could all be finished when the TV cameras, production team, the chaos and catering had all gone.

Our dream was to have a small selection of shops our clients could visit, they would all be filled with items that would evoke memory and help with mobility and cognitive behaviour. We would have a record shop, a pub, a post office, cinema, workshop, and a bakery. We managed to get all these things and more, Anneka was keen to leave us a space that could, in the future produce a small revenue and from that the Café was created out of our old shed and freezer room.

Our clients are now able to enjoy a coffee and toast in the café in the morning, then wander to the cinema to watch a movie or an old reel of the Wirral, they can even pop into the pub on the way back.

To see our clients sitting in the record shop enjoying a vinyl record of their own choice is just fantastic. We have had clients dancing on the village green and playing bowls or even enjoying a game of Badminton.

The whole garden is now a useable versatile space, which above all is safe. We are so proud of our beautiful gardens and can’t thank Challenge Anneka enough for making our dream become a reality..

You can watch the show now on catch up, Channel 5 Challenge Anneka.

If you are looking after someone with Dementia you are now able to come and enjoy the space, or if you are a care home who would like to bring your clients for an afternoon please email lynnehamilton@ageukwirral.org.uk for all enquiries.

Volunteering opportunities:

We are currently recruiting for a number of volunteer roles to support us with helping to run events at the Dementia Village. If you would be interested please contact volunteering@ageukwirral.org.uk for an informal conversation about volunteering opportunities.

Please enjoy the photos that take you from the very start of the build to our very first open day.