This February some of our residents from Colliers Croft were invited to join the Saints Reminisce Cafe. We were all really excited, but one of our residents was particularly pleased – Harry, who played for the Saints when he was 18 and is their oldest living player!
Harry was delighted to be visiting his old team ground, but didn’t know just how much his old club would roll out the red carpet.
It was such a memorable day out for everyone, starting with looking over the photos on the hall of fame wall, before we all went to the café with an amazing view of the ground, where we were given some delicious tea, coffee and cookies.
While we were there Harry struck up a conversation with Brad who managed to find an old picture of Harry on a Clock Face Rugby team photo from the 1950s which he found on the Saints Heritage site and a more recent one of him receiving his centenary shirt.
Not only did Harry have a fantastic trip down memory lane, but the speaker also introduced him to everyone and he stood up to a huge round of applause.
Katie Mottershead who is involved with the Saint’s squad, also gave a talk and had a photo taken with us. We also had a quiz, which our lovely ladies excelled at!
It was a really fun and entertaining day out for all our residents, but a very special one for Harry, who said “I have had such a memorable day over-looking the pitch and being amongst the Saints Greats. I’ll wear my boots next time!”
All our staff love finding out about the lives our residents have lived, our care home activities bring out so many stories, but the day trips we take often give our residents an opportunity to really talk about their lives and reminisce. We knew Harry played for the Saints, but we didn’t know how much of a celebrity he is until our visit!
This is what St Helen’s RFC wrote about Harry on their website:
“February’s Reminisce Cafe, hosted by the Saints Community Development Foundation, took place earlier on today at the home of the ‘Four in a Row’ Champions. Among those at a very well attended event was Harry, a legend of the Rugby League community around the St Helens area. He is pictured alongside our very own Brad Billsborough at today’s event.
Harry played for local club Clock Face Miners back in the 1950s and is currently the oldest living former player from the club. He collected his centenary shirt from his former club just under two years ago.”
If you would like to find out more about our care home in Haydock, you can find details of our residential and dementia care facilities here. Please do contact us anytime to arrange a viewing.