Our story
Thornhill House in Great Longstone, Derbyshire, has been providing first-class nursing and residential care to local people for over 30 years. We are owned and run by the John Thornhill Memorial Trust, a registered charity and not-for-profit organisation. Set in the heart of the village, we have become a much-loved community asset with top ratings and widely recognised for the warmth of our welcome to hundreds of elderly people and their families.
As one of the first dual registered Nursing and Residential Homes in the country, Thornhill House was the result of a compelling idea and some equally powerful philanthropy. Named after the late husband of Molly Thornhill, our Founder, the home has its roots in compassion, pragmatism and generosity. After being deeply affected by the death of a friend’s mother who had been placed in an unfamiliar facility far away from her loved ones, Molly was convinced there had to be a better way of caring for older people.
Her vision was to bring person-centred care to a friendly, home-from-home environment at Thornhill House. Molly won the support of local philanthropists and together they created an exceptional residential facility in the area. Their legacy continues to inspire our strategic plans, as we seek to develop Molly’s proven model and prepare to meet new challenges in the sector.
Our ambition is to future-proof our gold-standard care by relocating to The Grange in Great Longstone. This will involve a sensitive £2.5 million refurbishment of the new site but will give us the space we need to provide enhanced dementia and end of life services. It will also enable us to build long-term resilience into everything we do, from meeting the complex needs of our residents to prioritising the well-being of our wonderful staff team.
But we can only achieve this by harnessing the same spirit of philanthropic giving that raised the £800,000 required to open Thornhill House in 1994. Our goal is to honour Molly’s original concept of care, taking with us all the memories of this special place, and embedding them into a more sustainable operation.