Peebles Care Home Celebrates 100 Years of Historic Care Facility

One of Peebles’ best known care homes and most prominent buildings is celebrating 100 years as a historic care facility in the Scottish Borders town.

Mansfield Care has owned and operated Peebles Care Home since 2006, but it was on 5 October 1922 that The Peeblesshire Nursing Association Home and Hospital, known locally as the War Memorial Hospital, first opened on Tweed Green. A commemorative plaque on the building records that the hospital was provided “In grateful remembrance of the men and women of the county who served on land or sea, at home or abroad, during the Great War 1914-1918”. The facility provided the people of Peeblesshire with a service which included a maternity unit, an operating theatre for minor procedures, and GP beds.

The hospital first became a care home in 1983. Since then, there have been many changes, none more so than those following serious flooding from the river Tweed on 30 December 2015. Care home residents had to be evacuated after the river burst its banks and flooded the ground floor. Former Scotland rugby international Doddie Weir re-opened the care home in 2017, following 20 months of extensive refurbishment.

To mark the centenary this October, Peebles Care Home staff welcomed over 70 invited guests with connections to the facility for an informal afternoon of music, nibbles and fizzy refreshments. Operations Manager Jane Rogers said, “It was lovely seeing everyone chatting and touring all the recent refurbishments, including our new dedicated hair salon!” Peebles Silver Band provided music in the garden while local accordionist Alan Hunter played Scottish tunes in the lounge.

While a number of the visitors had been born in the then maternity hospital, one special guest recalled working in the facility as an auxiliary nurse in the early 1950s when she was just fifteen years old.

Jane said: “Our residents really enjoyed the event, and it was a relaxed and sociable atmosphere to remember the long and varied history of our care home”.

Thanks to Mansfield Care for the lovely photos.