What a difference having your own team makes. Having a supportive network around you can make a world of difference to your wellbeing.  In fact, ARCO, the independent body that sets standards for retirement communities, found that moving to a retirement community results in a  24% decrease in anxiety symptoms among owners and residents. 

Adlington Retirement Living homeowners have access to their own on-site management team in each community, who are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Like a good neighbour, they’re the first port of call for any problems, large or small, and will always go the extra mile to help out.  

Pat and Michael, homeowners at The Woodlands, said: “The whole set up here is so well run. I just can’t believe how settled I feel now that we’re here. If I could have handpicked all the people who work here, they would be this team. The staff are lovely and caring. I can’t speak too highly of them. They always ask if everything’s alright and if there’s anything we need. They’re all great.” 

A team on hand 24 hours a day 

Having somebody on-hand 24 hours a day was an important part of Margaret’s decision to move to The Folds in Romiley in 2022.  

“If there wasn’t 24-hour support on hand, I wouldn’t have come. My decision to move was the result of a mini-stroke which I had in November 2020. I woke up and didn’t feel very well. When I realised that I was having a stroke, I had a phone by the bed, but I couldn’t remember anybody’s telephone number or how to dial.  I just pressed the autodial twice and the first name that came up was my son’s ex-wife. She picked up the phone and realised that I couldn’t speak and so she rang Richard and he called an ambulance and my neighbours before setting off on his four hour drive to see me. In the meantime, the neighbours had a key and came in to sit with me and look out for the ambulance. 

 “That was a wakeup call. It took about six months for me to recover and that’s when I happened to read an article in the local newspaper about Adlington Retirement Living winning an award.  I decided to visit The Folds with a friend and I just fell in love with it. I put the deposit down the second time I came…and I don’t regret it one bit. My first impressions were that it was like a very exclusive hotel, and I loved it. I thought I was happy where I was, but I’m so much happier here.” 

 Jane, who move to The Sidings in Lytham in 2022 said: “I think one of the biggest things is keeping people comfortable and safe. Safety is important to everybody. I felt settled here straight away. I walked in and on my first night, I closed that door, got into bed and fell fast asleep. 

 “Not all retirement communities have somebody on call 24-7. We’re also lucky with the team that we have here. We see them as our friends, not just managers. When we play dominos, they’ll sometimes have a game with us. They’re great. Moving here was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life, except for marrying my husband. What I was buying was a life. Since I’ve come here, that life is far more than I ever thought I would have. It’s a marvellous community. There isn’t anything I don’t like about this place.” 

Futureproofing for the unexpected 

More of our homeowners are choosing to move to retirement communities whilst they’re fit and healthy, to futureproof their retirement. Knowing that the Adlington on-site team is available 24-7 offers peace of mind to themselves and their families, and helps the understand the benefit of an on-site team in a retirement community.

Margaret, who moved to The Woodlands with her husband John, said: “I just don’t want to wait until a crisis happens. That’s the reason that we’re doing it at 74 and 71, when we’re relatively young, but I’m thinking ahead. 

John said: “We have these alarm systems that you can press if you get into difficulty. We don’t wear ours yet, but if you press it, within two or three minutes somebody is at the front door to make sure everything is ok. So, the system is first class.” 

The sophisticated emergency call system not only covers each private apartment but the entire building and gardens, for added peace of mind. 

A survey from Age UK found that 36% of older people said worrying about falling over topped their list of concerns, so the additional support at an Adlington Retirement Living community can make a world of difference.  

Margaret said: “My mum doesn’t have any on-site support where she lives. In the past, she’s fallen on the floor and been there for hours. One of us goes to visit her every day but it could have been nine or ten hours before we found her.  It’s good that we know we have everything in place for the future. I do think a lot of people go into old age thinking that they’re going to be exactly the same as they were. The fact is, something will go wrong with all of us at some point in the future.  

“I’d say to anybody thinking about moving to a retirement community, if you’re going to think of it at all in the future, do it now. Don’t wait. You want to enjoy the facilities that are available while you’re able to. I love it here. I really do. I say it almost on a daily basis.” 

 Peace of mind for you and your family 

The peace of mind that comes with a move to a retirement community often extends to family members too. 

When Edna and Philip moved to an Adlington Retirement Living community, their daughter Rachel said: “It feels safe. There’s somebody on duty 24 hours a day. It’s such a relief for us to know that there’s always somebody there. If Mum and Dad haven’t been down to the restaurant or nobody’s seen them within a 24hour period, they get a phone call to check they’re ok. It’s just such a comfort, knowing that they’re looked out for. 

Edna added: “The best thing about moving here has been the peace of mind. Not only for us, but for our two daughters. We hadn’t realised that worrying about us had been affecting their sleep for about 18 months. If one of us falls, there’s help immediately and it’s 24/7. We know all the staff, and they all know us.”  

Sharon Bossons, Adlington Management Services Operations Manager, said: “The most important aspect of our job is the support we provide to homeowners. It’s our role to deliver the lifestyle that they expect when they move to an Adlington Retirement Living community.  The best thing for me is having happy homeowners. I love the fact that I can walk into any of our retirement communities and feel a positive atmosphere and hear laughter and joy. That’s when I know we’ve got it right!” 

Anne moved to The Sidings in Lytham in 2023. Although her sons had all come home to support her when she needed them, none of them live nearby. 

“Richard lives in Chester now, Damian lives in Australia and Martin lives in America. With the boys being so far away, the last thing I wanted was for them to worry about me. I wanted to give them peace of mind that they didn’t need to be worrying about me and that I’m going to be all right.” 

Anne thought the idea of retirement living sounded perfect for her. 

“I liked the idea of there being somebody on hand. There’s a duty manager here 24-7. I mean thank goodness I haven’t needed to call on them, but I might do at some point. It’s futureproofing. Another thing that I liked about the concept of retirement living was the fact that I would still be independent, still have my own front door, as it were, and at The Sidings I would still be close to where all my activities are. I play bridge, I sing in the local community choir and my friends live nearby, I’m used to the area. I thought it sounds a bit like the best of both worlds. 

“I really liked the fact that I wouldn’t have that weight of responsibility for a property on my shoulders and I wouldn’t have that to worry about. I wouldn’t need to worry about the leylandii hedges that need to be cut down twice a year or about decorating. That could all be lifted off my shoulders.” 

Value for money 

Mike and Pam, homeowners at The Woodlands in Heaton Mersey said: “I think one of the perceptions of retirement living communities is that the service charge is expensive. There’s a tendency to look at it in isolation as a charge that you didn’t pay before, but when you sit down and work out all the different services that you paid for at home, it’s actually not bad. 

“Here the service charge covers gardening, cleaning, building maintenance, buildings insurance, water utilities. Obviously, the whole idea of this type of independent living is the fact that you don’t have to worry about these things. You’re not picking the phone up every five minutes to organise things.” 

Tim and Angela who moved to The Spindles in Menston in 2023 worked out how much they were already paying to employ a gardener, a cleaner and to carry out various maintenance jobs around their previous home. 

“We totted up, and the expenses we were paying at home in Harrogate for those things were pretty-well equal to the maintenance we pay here at The Spindles, so we thought we might just as well move. All the outside work and ongoing maintenance here is covered.” 

With their two children living abroad, Angela and Tim were also keen to make sure they have support available if they ever need it. 

Angela: “We were planning ahead and thinking, if we need some help, we need people that we can rely on. We were aware of retirement living as a concept. My mother lived in a retirement community when she first came to Leeds. She had her own apartment and lived independently but there was only somebody on site in the daytime. Here it is much better because there’s somebody here all through the night as well. 

“The other main motivation for moving here was the distance of our children. Our daughter lives in Germany now with her husband and two boys. And our son is in Canada, with his wife and two children. They were getting worried that we’re getting old and had no support around us.”  

Tim: “I think that was a big reason for Angela. She was worried that if anything happened to me, she didn’t want to be on her own. Either in an emergency or long term. I remember once I stumbled and fell in the drive. I was shouting. I couldn’t get up and people who were walking past came and helped me up.” 

Angela: “The same thing happened to me one day. We’d had a delivery of logs and I trod on a log, slipped and ended up flat on my back on the stone drive. Fortunately, our next-door neighbour had his windows open and heard me shouting, and a lady who’d been walking past came running up the drive. She happened to be a nurse and our neighbour was a physiotherapist, so they got me up.” 

Tim: “Now if anything were to happen, we can just press a button and the duty manager would rush to help. That sort of facility at our age is ideal. Especially when you haven’t got any family nearby.”  

Beautiful landscaping 

Every Adlington Retirement Living community has beautifully manicured and maintained gardens, designed with our homeowners in mind. They offer the perfect spot for a chat over coffee on the patio, a stroll in the gardens or a quiet moment of reflection. With seating areas, thoughtful pathways and a summer house to enjoy, there are plenty of opportunities to relax in peaceful surroundings.   

When Nigel moved to Jacobs Gate in 2020, his daughter, Maria, was particularly impressed: “The gardens are so lovely and the upkeep of them is gorgeous. The landscaping here is infinitely nicer than anything we’ve seen elsewhere. The variety of plants in the garden and the space outside looks very appealing. It’s a real sun trap too.” 

Margaret, a homeowner at The Folds, thought the gardens were exceptional too: “I’m a keen gardener and in my previous home, we used to take part in the annual open gardens. My daughter-in-law is a landscape designer and she was just overcome by the quality of the landscape design and the planting here.” 

When you’ve spent a lifetime working hard to maintain your house and garden, it’s refreshing to let somebody else do it for you. 

Harry, a homeowner at The Sidings in Lytham, said: “We’ve got rid of two houses and all the worry of painting and weeding the garden and all the rest of the things. It’s all done here. If anything goes wrong, we just report it and there’s somebody here within a couple of days. And there’s an on-site maintenance chap, who’s most helpful.” 

Ann, Harry’s wife, said: “And we’ve got the gardeners. It was beautiful when it was tulip season and it’s lovely now with the hydrangeas.” 

With a heated summer house, well-maintained level access garden paths and raised planters, you can enjoy the beautiful gardens all year round. And with the discreet personal emergency call system working throughout the property, inside and out, venturing into the garden is no longer a worry.

Everything under one roof 

When you move to a retirement community you can do as much or as little as you like. It’s entirely your choice. 

Ann said: “We’re busy, but busy doing things that we like. We have a gardening group, take-away nights, pétanque, a book club, and there’s a local, historical interest group and we go around looking at old buildings. We have film nights. We have games nights.” 

Ann enjoys dancing and goes to a weekly movement with music class in the activity studio: “It’s good having it in the same building because in winter, the bad weather can put you off and if you don’t go a few times, you might stop going altogether. But if it’s here, you’ve only got to pop downstairs. We spend lots of time in the coffee lounge and the homeowners lounge too. If anybody wants to chat, they go and sit in the coffee lounge and invariably, the crowd will gather and that’s how it goes. You’re never short of somebody to talk to.” 

 The communal areas in our retirement communities are really an extension of your own home for socialising. You can entertain friends and family in the restaurant, coffee lounge or homeowners’ lounge, as well as your own apartment. 

 For Nigel, the restaurant was a huge attraction when he moved to Jacobs Gate.  

His daughter, Maria, said: “We’ve been really impressed with the food. The chefs are lovely, the staff that bring the food are lovely and the food is excellent. We had hasselback potatoes one day and mentioned that we’d seen them on MasterChef the night before. The chef said that’s where they got the idea from. They’re not just doing any old dinner, they’re looking at MasterChef, they’re looking at recipes, they’re getting ideas. It’s all fresh and it’s thoughtful.” 

Across our multi-award-winning portfolio, we have welcomed over 1,000 happy homeowners to our communities. In our last homeowner survey, 100% of respondents stated they would recommend living in an Adlington Retirement Living community to their friends or family. 

Come and see for yourself 

Why not get a real feel for your options? Join us for one of our coffee mornings, arrange a private tour or we can book in a spot of complimentary lunch for you in the restaurant. 

 If you would like to find out more, our friendly sales teams are ready to welcome you Monday to Saturday at The Spindles in Menston, The Sidings in Lytham, The Woodlands in Heaton Mersey, The Newells in Kempston, Broadleaf House in Wylde Green, Sutton Coldfield. 

The Folds in Romiley and Jacobs Gate in Sheffield are available by appointment only. Or you can request a brochure for your community of choice.