Cumbria Cerebral Palsy Society

Cumbria Cerebral Palsy Society 22 Spencer Street CARLISLE Cumbria CA1 1BG Tel.01228 527796 Fax 01228 592126

1. What is Cerebral Palsy?
2. Cumbria Cerebral Palsy Society
3. Maryport Branch
4. Scalesceugh Hall

The Cumbria Cerebral Palsy Society

A Brief History...

The first Group for parents of children with a physical disability was formed in 1952. Meetings were held in the Temperance Hall Caldewgate, Carlisle and became something of a social event with pie and pea suppers often following meetings. Other parents with handicapped children were visited.

With some people travelling from as far as Maryport, another group was started in Workington in 1954.

Mr. Kenneth Payne, chairman of the Carlisle Spastics Society, as the first group became known, travelled all over Cumbria, showing a film and giving talks about the Society. He mustered great interest in the Society's work, forming many groups, who raised funds for the clients.

By 1955, the Society had become the Cumberland, Westmoreland and Furness Spastics Society, with charity registration and an affiliation to the national Spastics Society [now Scope]. Executive committee meetings were held at the Royal Oak Hotel Keswick with Robert Chance as president; Kenneth Payne, chairman; John Herd, treasurer; and Sheila Jackson, secretary. Sheila is still with the Carlisle branch.

In 1959, the groups leased Westways, an old vicarage in Allonby which became a holiday home for children with a physical disability until 1977 when it closed.

The Society bought Irton Hall at Holmrook, near Ravenglass, in 1964 as a boarding school for children, which was handed over to the Spastic's Society. They sold it in the late 1980s.

In 1962, the Society bought Scalesceugh Hall, a mansion near Carlisle, owned by the Harrison family. It was converted into the first home for cerebral palsied adults in the Northwest. The Hall has residential accommodation for up to 32 people with others able to attend on a daily basis. The home was officially opened in 1966 and Major Harrison was Society president until 1993 when he retired, but he is still a vice-president.

The Society's office was then moved from Solway Villa, Allonby, to Tower Buildings in Carlisle - on the top floor! Miss Christie became the social worker and Miss Gournay General Secretary, The office was next moved to a ground floor at 27 Spencer Street. Jim Jackson became the General Secretary and Leslie Firth the social worker. In 1977, Penny Melville succeeded Leslie.

Lynne Culley became Society secretary - the word general was dropped from the title - in 1981, a position she still holds today.

About then, some Carlisle businessmen began raising money for Scalesceugh Hall. They achieved the magnificent amount of £100,000 towards building a single-storey bungalow. The Spastics Society [now Scope] Donated the £9,999 needed to complete the project and the pavilion, as it was called, was officially opened by the Duchess of Gloucester in 1985.

The Society moved its HQ to 38 Portland Place in 1989 and three years later was back to Spencer Street, this time at No. 22, for what will be its permanent office for years to come.

The following year the Society reviewed all its services and increased its part-time social workers to serve the east, west and south areas of the county. Dolores McQuillin, whose husband Hugh is still a member of the Carlisle branch, was appointed social worker for Carlisle in 1987 with Penny concentrating on the rest of Cumbria.

Ann Houlston, who took over the east area, became the social workers' leader, a position she still holds. She did however, take an 18-month break in 1992-93, during which Maggie Unsworth took over.

After 10 years with the Society Penny stepped down. Since then the west has been looked after by Cathie Hoggard, then Vera Benson and now Liz Kelley. Marilyn Warbrick has been our southern social worker since the reorganisation.

Scalesceugh Hall

Scalesceugh Hall is a residential home owned by Cumbria Cerebral Palsy Society, and registered with Cumbria County Council Social Services Inspectorate under the Registered homes Act l984.

It is an attractive building, set in its own landscaped grounds, seven miles from the centre of Carlisle and provides accommodation for 32 people. Provision for overcoming the difficulties which physical disability causes include ramped entrances, stairlift passenger lift and bath hoists.

There are two comfortable sitting rooms and a pleasant dining room. The bedrooms offer a choice of two shared bed-sitting rooms, nine single rooms and nine rooms that can be shared by two people whilst the Dower House flat offers an opportunity for independent living for four people.

All rooms are linked to an emergency call system. Televisions, radios, music-centres and computers are among the personal items that many of the residents have in their rooms.

The home has a Skills Centre where through individual programme planning, people are encouraged to develop their own potential to the full in activities of daily living which include meal planning, cookery and literacy skills as well as leisure activities.

Participation in community activities is encouraged and local sports facilities, theatre, clubs and groups such as self advocacy, are a few of the opportunities available.

The aims and beliefs of the Society, management and staff are to provide an environment which encourages and enables people to live as full and rewarding a life as possible. Through individual assessment residents are encouraged to identify their individual needs and wishes for the future and to take as much responsibility as possible for their own lives.