Whilst many people scramble to make bookings for the recently-named green list holiday destinations, I am confident that people at The Grange will just as happy with the return of the simpler pleasures in life that have been denied to us over the last 14 months. From Monday 17 May, The Grange is open for families and carers to come to drop in on their relatives. As long as Covid 19 roadmap continues as planned, we are confident that there will be an outbreak of hugging around our sites. It’s fascinating that this need for basic physical contact has become so overwhelming, outweighing even our love of pubs, beaches and Butlins. We still need to take great care, of course: we hear about a third wave of the virus, and there is too little known about the behaviour of Covid 19. But we do hope this spring will be one of reunited families and rediscovered friends.

We are excited to be planning public events again, rejoining the line-up for Bookham Open Gardens on Sunday 27 June, hosting Hymns and Pimms in partnership with All Saints’ Church, Little Bookham, on Saturday 3 July and bringing back our hugely entertaining Night at the Movies on Friday 16 July.  Even before these, we’re hard at work making gifts and cards for your Fathers’ Day celebrations, which you can buy from our on line shop.  We also offer delicious ‘scones to go’ for special occasions to order > Scones to Go

If you haven’t already signed up to our regular newsletter, you really should. Just fill in the short form that can be found in the footer of any of our website pages. And if you have a little spare cash, having decided not to book a holiday in The Falkland Islands or South Georgia this year, please consider sponsoring my 5-day, 95 mile Highland Hike in June using the link https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/EloiseAppleby (cheques payable to ‘The Grange Centre’).

Here’s to a spring of togetherness. Make sure you’ve booked a time to visit us in your diary for the months ahead: you’ll find the old Grange magic very restorative after the year we’ve all had.

Eloise Appleby
Chief Executive Officer