Latest news with #Knapton
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Hundreds gather for VE Day parade
Hundreds of people have gathered for a parade as part of the 80th anniversary of VE Day in Warwickshire. About 150 soldiers from the 30 Signal and Queens Gurkha Signals regiments marched through Bedworth to mark the occasion. The parade began at the Almshouses and moved on to the high street, before heading up to the Peace Podium on Sergeant Simon Valentine Way. VE Day commemorates victory in Europe and marks the end of nearly six years of war on 8 May 1945, when Nazi Germany's forces surrendered to the allies in World War Two. Dozens of events have taken place across the area to mark the 80th anniversary, including street parties, as well as church and memorial services. In Shipston-on-Stour, a new exhibition called Shipston Remembers opened to commemorate the events of eight decades ago. The collection, at Shipston Museum, recognises the contributions of local people and includes items such as medals, ration books, war food recipes and VE Day newspapers. "These were very close-knit towns, where everybody would have known everybody," explained Stephen Hartley, museum trustee. "People have come forward with photographs, with items, who want to remember, who want to tell their family stories about the people that they hold dear and whom they respect." Bernard Maguire recalled the dancing and singing at the time and described it as a "wonderful time". "We were sat down on these trestle tables out and food used to appear from out of the houses, but we'd all been suffering from you know food shortages," he said "We'd always put a little bit by, for at the end of the war and it all came together." Doreen Knapton, aged 101, was a young mother during the war and contributed to the war effort by working in a munitions factory. "I was the littlest of the lot and the girls used to go over the fence and get apples, and I used to have to stand guard," she told the BBC. Ms Knapton's son Alwyn, who is now in his 80s, said the country's unity during the conflict should be praised. "It wasn't just the ones that were fighting, it was all those back home keeping the country going. Digging for Britain and all that sort of stuff," Mr Knapton said. "I think everybody done their bit." During the evening, an event took place in Broadgate in Coventry city centre, with people encouraged to wear clothing from the 1940s and songs from the era were performed. The Coventry Blitz - on 14 November 1940 - was the single most concentrated attack on a British city in the entire war. Hundreds of Luftwaffe bombers dropped more than 30,000 bombs there. The city council's deputy leader, Labour councillor Abdul Salam Khan, said: "We rose from those problems and became a city renowned throughout the world as a city of peace and reconciliation. "That's a badge which we wear with honour." Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. Knitted VE Day party appears in village 'I'm shocked by global reaction to postbox topper' VE Day at 80: What's to come - and what you might have missed Beacons to be lit across South East for VE Day VE Day 80
BBC News
30-01-2025
- Health
- BBC News
'Dirty' Birkenhead care home stopped from taking residents by Wirral Council
A "dirty" care home with "sticky floors and a foul smell" has been stopped from taking in new residents by a council. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated Park House care home in Birkenhead as inadequate and said "rapid and widespread improvements" were were not respected and "lazy staff" even called them by their room numbers and a mysterious green liquid was found in a cup which anyone could access, inspectors found during a visit in September and October last year. Park House Care Home has been approached by the Local Democracy Reporting Service for comment. The inspection was the first since Lentulus Properties Limited took over the care home on Park Road South, which cares for up to 111 people, in January 2024, operating under the name Springcare Care inspector found seven regulations breaches, issued three warning notices to the service, and Wirral Council's Infobank website said new placements by the local authority had been suspended to the home since safeguarding issues around unexplained bruising, out of date milk, dirty communal areas, low morale and a poor culture were also reported to or found by the Knapton, deputy director of operations in the North for the CQC, said it was concerned about the "widespread deterioration" of the said there was not always enough staff and the workforce "didn't always respect people's privacy, dignity, and independence" with some staff even referring to people by their room number rather than their names, adding this was "unacceptable".She said inspectors found kitchenette areas, fridges, bathrooms, and equipment "dirty". "Staff had left a cup of green liquid, which they couldn't identify, in reach of anyone using the service. "This is just one example of safety risks that leaders weren't managing in the service."Ms Knapton added: "We have told the service where we expect to see rapid and widespread improvements and we will return to check on their progress." Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.
