The 1960s

In 1961 Ashmount Hotel was bought, and two years later opened as Ashmount, the Guild’s third residential home for older people.

Ashmount

Dame Sybil Thorndike opening Ashmount

The Guild’s first 30 years was rounded off with the establishment of the Worthing Remembrance Fund which helped pay for St Barnabas Nursing Home for people with terminal illnesses, now St Barnabas Hospice.  Worthing Marriage Guidance Council – now Relate – was also founded by the charity.

The first tentative meeting in 1933 had preceded the Welfare State by 15 years and provided services which people needed and no-one else provided.  By the charity’s 30th anniversary, the seeds of faith and dedication sown by those three founder members had grown into a spreading tree providing for the needs of the community.

The sixties heralded a time of great change; swinging Britain was born and a social conscience was an essential part of any young person’s life.  During this period Mrs Florrie Frazer donated a property, its contents and £10,000.  The Guild’s fourth home, Frazer Lodge, in Wykeham Road was opened in 1967 and named in recognition of this generosity.

Dolphin Court in Shelley Road was founded with an anonymous donation of £20,000. This was a new initiative - wardened flats where tenants had the opportunity to socialise and to purchase a hot midday meal.  Its services are still enjoyed today.

Sadly in 1966 one of the Guild’s founder members, Revd Haviland, died.

St Barnabas was opened five years after the Worthing Remembrance Fund was formed. 

The charity sponsored the local Association of Single Women and their Dependents.