MANDEVILLE, Manchester – Newly appointed administrator of Manchester’s flagship childcare facility, the Salvation Army’s Hanbury Home would like to introduce sports and entertainment backed by a skill training programme to the basic function of the institution as an agency for the care and protection of children.

The newcomer to the leadership of Hanbury, Lieutenant Adrian Edwards, a Barbadian, and his wife Denise, also a lieutenant in the Salvation Army, let his sentiments be known during an interview, when members of the Porus Primary School Parenting Club brought gifts and Christmas cheer to the Hanbury Home’s 47 children.

From the youngest, a three-month-old baby girl, to the 17-year-old boys and girls, being prepared to exit the institution, they received age-appropriate gifts and treats from the visitors led by club President Beverley Tulloch-Danvers.

Edwards spoke with passion of his desire to bring into being opportunities for the outlet of the creative ability of the young residents of Hanbury, and to gain for those so inclined, some exposure to skills training.

“When I see the talent…the potential for athletic sports and latent musical, I think that I must do something to develop those potentials,” Edwards declared.

These endeavours, he indicated would be to fill leisure gaps and other available time, as each school-age child at the institution is in school – primary and high. The high schools attended were Holmwood, Bellefield, Christiana and the Mandeville Institute.

Since the discontinuation of the home’s livestock-rearing project, which he said included a piggery, chicken farm, goat herd, several heads of cattle and a bio-digester that transformed the animal manure into cooking gas for the home, there has been a gap to be filled in the activities of the institution.

Lt Edwards explained that the entire farming enterprise, including the biogas facility was ordered shut down by the Child Protection and Family Services Agency (CPFSA) on account of health concerns. The CPFSA has oversight authority of all childcare facilities, and according to Lt Edwards the proximity of the animal-rearing and biogas operations to the main buildings of the home, was seen by the agency as posing a health hazard.

For the near future he wants to undertake more “doable development” such as the overhaul of the physical infrastructure and the addition of a multipurpose hall where all, including his 19-member staff of caregivers can gather, functions can be held and visitors can be received. For these projects, he said he was on the lookout for partners to join the Salvation Army to bring them to fruition.

Perched proudly on a hill in the quiet community of Kendal — about a 15-minute drive north east of Manchester’s capital, Mandeville — is the cluster of old and not-so-new buildings that is Hanbury Home.

Renovated and repainted, supplemented and subsidised over many decades by scores of donors, well-wishers, individual volunteers, religious organisations, corporate and government agencies, the Hanbury Home stubbornly retains its rustic early 20th century charm of lumber and lime plaster.

Three weathered plaques affixed to the exterior walls of the complex, bear testimony across six decades of the many willing hands and kind hearts, locally and overseas, that have helped to create this homely sanctuary for generations of the neglected, abused, abandoned and homeless children of the parish.

Lt Edwards, would like, in his tenure, which began six months ago, to transform even one of the rough-hewn buildings into a modern purpose-built facility. He said he has several other long-term development ideas for Hanbury, but for now he would like to replace the kitchen and dining area which was built in the mid-1960s by boys of what was then known as a juvenile delinquent reform school – Cobbla Youth Camp.

His aim is to upgrade the old kitchen fixtures and dining furnishing of yesteryear to stainless appliances and gleaming granite finishes.