The four seasons of 2023 have flashed by! We are so excited to bring you our second Spring quarterly newsletter with four new Bell House articles which we really hope you enjoy reading.
Magic can happen in a Shared Reading Group
During lockdown in 2020, Bell House hosted an ‘Elevenses’ coffee morning on Zoom for volunteers to chat and support each other. At one of these meetings, they were introduced to Ben Abel and the concept of “Shared Reading”. And so the Bell House “Shared Reading Group” was born. As a long term member says: “It saved my sanity during lockdown and was great fun.”
The reading group is now run by Guilia Cellerini who joined Ben in the early days, then subsequently took on the role of host. Giulia is a recently-qualified Primary teacher working in Kennington. But what is really fascinating is how she became involved in Shared Reading.
After reading English at London University, Giulia was applying for a PGCE teaching qualification and wanted to strengthen her personal statement. Her professor recommended that she look into the charity 'The Reader'.
The Reader is a national charity, originating in Liverpool, that wants to bring about a Reading Revolution “so that everyone can experience and enjoy great literature”, which the charity believes is “a tool for helping humans survive and live well".
It is free to all and available to everyone. The charity reads with schools, families and looked-after-children, adults in community spaces, people in care homes, people with physical and mental health conditions, those coping with or recovering from addiction, and people in the criminal justice system - globally.
The Reader has extensive reading resources but groups can also choose their own pieces. The meetings happen in all kinds of places - libraries, community centres, shops and high-street cafes and in the case of Bell House, on-line.
Research shows Shared Reading improves wellbeing, reduces isolation and helps us find new meaning in our lives.
“Hearing others read aloud and taking time to pause and reflect, is a therapeutic experience.”
”Shared reading supports me through difficult times.”
“Reading together, you can end up sharing things that you may not share with others - you’re not hiding these things - they just haven’t come up before.”
Giulia successfully applied to The Reader, was trained and then was recommended to Bell House in 2020.
Her groups are small; she has some regulars, others drop in. One regular lives alone and values the company; another is unable to leave her home; and further afield there’s a regular attendee from Canada, who joins the session at 5am in the morning. This lady is always very relaxed, she may be looking out of her window sipping a coffee and may or may not participate vocally - but she tells Giulia she very much values the group. There are even drop-ins from North America, India, Sri Lanka and Eastern Europe to name but a few!
Giulia says that the most popular reading subjects are about Nature, Familial Relationships and the Emotions of Love - so very much reflecting lived experiences. As one of her regulars says: “I love the varied programme with lots of literature I would not have known about.”
When asked about her feelings on her Shared Reading group, Giulia says: “I surprised myself. I have found that I get from these sessions exactly what the groups are set up for - a feeling of community and a coming together for the pure joy of reading. Sharing a poem or a short story creates precious moments of connection and intimacy - the impact of shared reading is profound.”
Bell House Shared Reading sessions are run on a Wednesday at 6.30pm - March sessions 13th, & 27th. Why not drop in? You just need to register and the sessions are free.
As Giulia says: “Something magical happens in a shared reading group.”
Click here if you’d like to learn more about The Reader charity and maybe get involved.
The 2024 plans for the Bell House Garden are “the bee’s knees!”
Plans for the Bell House garden are mind-blowing - in fact we think they’re the bee’s knees! Just read on to learn more.
The 2.5 acre site at Bell House provides the garden team with plenty of scope to create a range of habitats for wildlife and different garden spaces for visitors and volunteers.
Work began in the autumn to create a series of new flower beds around the main lawn to be filled with plants for pollinators. Paths will take visitors through drifts of bulbs, perennials, grasses and shrubs specially chosen to provide pollen, nectar and year-round interest.
Volunteers will learn to grow the plants from seed, cuttings and small plugs, potted out and brought on in the polytunnel.
Hornbeam and yew hedges will frame the beds, providing a backdrop to the planting and a shelter point for birds foraging in the garden whilst lavender will surround the terrace to bring colour and scent to attract pollinators.
A new native hedge will be planted in the Pickwick garden, with willows and dogwood to soak up the ground water. The plants are part of a grant awarded by The Tree Council to support community engagement, enhance wildlife and education around on-going care.
Parts of the Pickwick garden are very wet after the winter, so swales will be dug to allow water to collect naturally, creating temporary lagoons now and sunny hollows in the summer. Soil removed will be left exposed as banks for mining bees to tunnel and nest.
The Bell House honeybees are now settled in a new apiary under an oak tree, surrounded by a low log wall built by the volunteers - see photo above. All fallen branches and cuttings are kept on site and added to log piles and the stumpery.
The stumpery, built by three keen volunteers, is made of logs half-buried in the soil to provide a valuable resource for beetles, woodlice, wood wasps and other insects who need deadwood for survival.
In the walled garden, the vegetable beds have been mulched and weeded, ready for this year’s growing season. Two new apple trees, a morello cherry and mulberry have been planted in the orchard. Each has been chosen by our visiting orchard expert to cross-pollinate with our existing trees and be resistant to disease. Heritage varieties were chosen, which could have been planted by the Victorian owners when the new servants’ wing was added to the house.
Come and see the garden and our plans for 2024 on the first Saturday of every month, 11.30pm to 1.00am. And if you have been amazed by what you’ve just read and would like to get involved, do check out our volunteer programme using the links below or email direct to: [email protected]
Photo: Sara Lloyd
Bell Health - here to help
Is there a health issue you’d like to talk about with an expert and fellow sufferers - to learn and share knowledge and experiences?
Bell House is renowned for its support of Dyslexia - in fact it was the raison d'être for the original conception of the charity. Over the years there have been so many other different health initiatives for the body and mind. For example, Bell House is currently offering a course on menopause and have a talk planned on men’s mental health in April.
Bell Health is a new team tasked with further developing health support and events at Bell House, with an important focus on demand from the Bell House community.
In fact a perfect example of what Bell Health plans is the current ‘Menopause Connections’ - an Holistic Approach to Menopause, proudly presented by a team of local menopause practitioners. Menopause Connections covers nutrition, fitness and pelvic health, as well as medical and natural approaches to managing menopause symptoms. Take a look online to get an idea of how it is being run. The feedback has been very positive: “What a great session, so informative.” and “The best talk on menopause that I’ve been to. Informative and clear.” The course will be a template for future events.
So what would you like to learn more about? Anxiety or depression; sleep issues; coping with arthritis; dealing with IBS; building greater self confidence; dermatological problems; loneliness; the list is endless.
Bell Health's aim is to create a safe space at Bell House to run support groups with a common health issue - where attendees can learn from an expert, feel comfortable asking questions and, as a result, share their experiences. When you’re part of a community, you not only learn more about the subject but also more about yourself.
As this initiative is demand-led - we are dependent on you talking to us. We need to hear from members of our Bell House community - that means we need to hear from you! Use the link below to contact Bell Health. Please take a little time to tell us about the health issues you’re interested in, or to tell us about any specialist subject support you could offer: [email protected]
Please help us build a thriving Bell Health community at Bell House - we’re here to help.
Exiled for a coat!
In 1769 James Simpson was accused of stealing a livery coat, valued at £1 (about £140 today), belonging to Thomas Wright’s coachman and left in the coach outside the Bell House stables, which are shown in the photo above.
Simpson was foolish enough to offer the coat to a clothes dealer in Paternoster Row. At that time, old clothes were sold there as it was the centre for the paper trade, in times when paper was made from rags.
Unfortunately for Simpson, Paternoster Row was the very place where paper merchant Thomas Wright worked. So Simpson had taken the coat to the one place in London (apart from Dulwich) where Thomas Wright’s livery would be recognised. Added to that bad luck, he offered it to someone who was an off-duty City of London policeman.
Simpson was duly arrested and sentenced to transportation to the American colonies - all for stealing a coat!