Reports and statements of accounts booklet for Penylan House, Cardiff, 31 December 1989

Description

A booklet giving the reports and statements of accounts for the Jewish Home for the Aged, South Wales, Monmouthshire and West of England, which was located at Penylan House, Penylan Road, Cardiff. The cover of the booklet features an illustration of Penylan House's exterior and states that the information inside covers up to and including 31 December 1989.

Throughout the booklet there are advertisements for local businesses, mostly Cardiff-based, such as ABM Leisure Ltd, Curran Insurance, A. Krotosky (Kosher Butcher), Webb's Nurseries, Colin Turner Painting and Decorating and Frozen Food (South Wales) Limited. As well as these, there are messages from individuals such as a page which states 'With Best Wishes from Ernest and Martin Hornung and Family'.

There is a list of the Board of Management, with the president being Mr H. Shatz, Honorary Secretary being Mrs B. Fox, Vice presidents being Mr I. Lightman and Mr C. Harris and Honorary Treasurer being Mr F. Toffler. Assessment officers, Trustees, Life Governors and the General Board are amongst other groups which are also named. An 'URGENT APPEAL' is given, emphasising how the Home is not state-controlled, therefore is dependent on voluntary contributions. Further donations are encouraged and towards the back of the booklet, there is a form which is titled 'Covenant to contribute' to the Home. This allowed readers to promise to pay a certain amount annually for the next four years as a donation to the Home.

In addition, the booklet contains reports from the President, the Treasurer, the Matron and the Welfare Committee. The President's Report (by Harold Shatz) begins by urging all subscribers to use 'Penylan House, Jewish Retirement and Nursing Home', as the Home's official title and to use this in all correspondence. Details of development of the Home are then detailed: the dining room had been extended into the solarium (one benefit of this being that frailer residents could use it as a pleasant place for meals) and the Treatment Room had been completed and fully equipped. The Treatment Room would allow the doctors and dentists who visited the Home to have improved privacy and convenience. The room had been dedicated to George and Betty Fox, (who had done much for the home, and continued to do so) on the occasion of their Golden Wedding anniversary. Future plans included continuing to decorate and refurnish bedrooms, landscape the front gardens (a project undertaken by the Welfare Committee) and upgrade the ground floor to improve the layout of the lounge. In addition, there were plans to build a psycho-geriatric unit, for which £150,000 would be needed. Many thanks are given to the kitchen staff, John Dent (the Maintenance Officer), the Secretary, the book-keeper, the Occupational Therapist and volunteers who had helped distribute and empty collection boxes. An appeal is given to younger members of the community to volunteer for the Home.

The Honorary Treasurer's Report emphasises how dependant on voluntary income the Home is and how, without it, there would have been a deficit of £19,000 that year. Many thanks are given to those who had offered financial support. Anita Glaser is welcomed back in the Welfare Committee Report and some of the activities of the year are outlined such as trips to Porthcawl and the New Theatre, a Sherry Morning (which raised £450) and an Open Day, which was ran predominantly by the residents.

A subscription list is included as well as the Revenue Account, the Balance Sheet and the George and Betty Fox's Project Account. The booklet ends with a note of thanks for people who have donated money, time or goods to be sold in aid of the Home. On the back cover of the booklet gives thanks for all the donations in 1989 and encourages readers to include residents in any celebrations they may be having the following year. Readers are encouraged to help in the "tremendous task we have in running this Home" by endowing a room, bed, furnishings or a plaque, which would both leave an everlasting memorial and improve the Home. For example, to endow a bed cost £650 and to endow a double room cost £5000.

Pencare (formerly known as 'The Trustees of Penylan House') is a charity, which offers care for elderly people of the Jewish faith and is currently based in Cardiff, although the catchment area for the home covers South Wales and the West of England. Pencare has been working with Linc Cymru to redevelop their care home, Penylan House, to ensure high quality care to Cardiff's elderly Jewish community and extending the care to elderly people not of the Jewish faith.

Mr Henry Silver and other members of the Cardiff Jewish community had originally founded a Home for the Aged in 1946 in Canton. In December 1948, the Home moved to Holme Towers in Penarth to provide more space for its large number of applications. Despite the beautiful surroundings, the Home in Penarth was quite isolated, so the difficult decision was later taken to move the Home to Penylan Road in Cardiff, meaning many residents were now closer to their friends and relatives. Residents moved to Penylan House in February 1959.

Sources:
http://opencharities.org/charities/243968;
http://www.housingcare.org/downloads/facilities/generated-brochures/134508-penylan-house-nursing-home-cardiff-wales.pdf;
Cajex, Magazine of the Association of Jewish Ex-service Men and Women (Cardiff), Vol. IX, No. 1, Ninth Year - March 1959, pp. 60- 65.

Depository: Glamorgan Archives.