Balkerne Gardens Trust

About Us

Balkerne Gardens Trust offers a complete pathway of support and care, from our Care at Home service, affordable sheltered housing through to residential and nursing care. We also provide respite and palliative care.

Situated in three locations near the historic town centre of Colchester, we have created a warm and friendly environment where privacy, dignity and choice are respected and care and companionship meet.

Our goal is to provide unrivalled individualised support and care, tailored to suit the needs of every person, delivered by a team of dedicated and well-trained nursing, care and support staff in modern, comfortable facilities.

In providing this wide range of services for older people in the Colchester area, we are grateful for the generosity of local people, businesses and volunteers.

Balkerne Gardens Trust Limited is an Exempt Charity, registered as a Co-operative and Community Benefit Society and a Registered Social Landlord. It is a non-profit making organisation governed by a Board of Trustees, comprised of volunteers from the Colchester area.

Balkerne Gardens owns and manages a Care at Home service, 69 sheltered housing flats, a 40 bedded Residential Care Home (Freda Gunton Lodge) and a 33 bedded Care Home with Nursing (Cheviot Nursing Home).

Our History

Balkerne Gardens Trust has provided affordable sheltered housing, residential and nursing care and accommodation in Colchester for many years. The Trust was established in 1833 with the first houses built on-site in the centre of Colchester in 1836.

Balkerne Gardens began life as the Colchester Provident Asylum Society; it aimed to support older or infirm men of good character who had insufficient means to maintain themselves towards the end of their lives, together with their wives or widows.

Our Services

Sheltered housing

Sheltered housing accommodation at Balkerne Gardens includes a total of 69 rented studio and one-bedroom flats in three units of sheltered housing. The apartments are let through a shorthold tenancy agreement to persons over the age of 65 who meet our admission criteria.

Care at Home

Care at Home is a specialist service for people aged over 65.  The service offers care and support to local people living in their own homes. The service operates from a shopfront in Crouch Street, Colchester and the team welcome visitors dropping in to discuss their need for a service.

Freda Gunton Lodge Residential Home 

Freda Gunton Lodge is our 40 bedded residential care home in the centre of Colchester, providing high-quality care in attractive and well-equipped accommodation. Well trained staff work closely with residents to ensure that care is tailored to individual need. Ensuring that it is well planned and delivered in partnership with residents and their families.

Cheviot Nursing Home

Our 33 bedded nursing care home, Cheviot Nursing Home is set in peaceful surroundings in Lexden, near the centre of Colchester. It is a large and gracious house, which opened as a nursing home in 1989 and is well equipped to meet the needs of all our residents. All the bedrooms are en-suite, some with French windows leading straight into the lovely garden.

Feel free to look at each service page for more information.