Mary Cornelius-Reid | A PASSION EXTRAORDINAIRE
A PASSION EXTRAORDINAIRE
Mary Cornelius-Reid, A. M., M. B. E., is a remarkable woman. She has a drive and passion that has remained with her since she was a young woman, sustaining her for 40 years as she confronted and overcame a host of seemingly un-surmountable problems to develop a highly successful nursing home and retirement village business in the UK and Portugal.
Mary started her career as a nurse in Winchester Hospital, but 40 years ago- in 1972- having moved up the nursing ladder to the post of Night Sister, she left the NHS as she had become disgruntled with the way it was being run and decided to try her luck in the private sector.“ I was aware of the dire shortage of nursing homes in the UK and so started to look for a suitable property” she says. Never one to sit around for long, she went to the bank and borrowed the £ 46,000 to buy Winton House, a 19th century property built in Elizabethan style and set in 20 acres of formal gardens and parkland in Nether Wallop. She moved in with her husband, John and two young children in June and within a day of opening in November of the same year, two residents moved in with another nine more moving in only a few weeks later.“ We lived in the top floor at first and gradually extended the nursing home, which was registered for 50 people” she says. As the nursing home filled up, the family had to move to the adjacent Coach House to make more room.
In 1981, Mary decided she wanted to start a second nursing home and began looking for another suitable building.
“ I heard that Amesbury Abbey, which was owned by Sir Philip Antrobus, was for sale. The house was on the market for £ 200,000, a good price as so many developers had turned it down because many of the flats were occupied by tenants, but I still didn’ t think I could afford it. Still, I went ahead, borrowed the money and bought it anyway!” she says.
The Abbey, a Grade I listed mansion set in 35 acres of gardens and grounds in Amesbury, had originally been gifted to Jane Seymour by Henry VIII, but when Mary met Sir Philip, he was living in just a small part of the residence, as the rest of the building had been turned into 15 flats. When they took possession, there was a leak in the roof and only one bathroom between 10 flats on the top floor. She put in a few more bathrooms, moved some of the tenants from one floor to another and started by using just the ground and middle floors of the house as a nursing home. As the original occupants gradually left, she was able to utilise more of the building and now it is one of the most elegant nursing homes in the U. K.
“ I expanded and expanded and then I started to build sheltered housing, which is my real passion and the reason I was awarded my MBE. I was one of first people to put housing in the grounds of a nursing home, with a guarantee that residents could move into the nursing home when they needed” she says. The Retirement Village at Amesbury is made up of 36 apartments and houses in the grounds and another six apartments within Amesbury Abbey itself.
By Mary Wilson
10 | Summer 2012 | www. portugal-life. net |
Amesbury Abbey