Honouring Ruby’s Legacy: Bishops Cleeve Care Home Renames Household ‘Dean’ After Historic Local Farm

Bishops Cleeve Care Home, is celebrating a remarkable connection to its local heritage by renaming one of its households Dean, in honour of resident Ruby, a spirited, kind-hearted woman whose family once farmed the very land where the home now stands.

Born in the early 1930s, Ruby grew up on Dean Farm as the only daughter among three sons. Her father, who “thought the world of her,” built a thriving family farm that became a cornerstone of the Bishops Cleeve community.

With a gentle smile and a twinkle in her eye, Ruby recalls her childhood fondly. “Life was happier then, but harder,” she says thoughtfully. “We all had to do our bit, and everyone looked out for one another.”

During the war years, the family’s fields were alive with purpose and community spirit. Ruby remembers long days of hand-picking potatoes, milking cows, tending sheep on Cleeve Hill, and helping the ‘land girls’ who came to support the war effort. Every inch of the land was put to use, from fields of corn and vegetables sold at Cheltenham Market to orchards where the family pressed their own cider.

“Every Sunday we had a drink before our meal,” she laughs warmly. “We made our own cider from the fruit we grew; nothing was wasted.”

As Ruby tells her story, her expressions are vivid, her memories to her, clear, she speaks as if she can still see it all unfolding before her. She recalls the sight of American soldiers stationed nearby during the war, their vehicles filling the fields below her family’s greenhouse. “I can still see them,” she says softly. “One day they were there, and the next morning, gone. That was D-Day. I’ve often thought not many of them made it back.”

Her recollections are full of both adventure and tenderness, the tiny green purse she lost as a child and never found, the two bombs that fell in the nearby sewer field, and her father’s quiet strength despite his time serving in the First World War, an experience he never spoke of.

When her father was injured by a cow and broke his hip, a serious injury in those days, Ruby even postponed her wedding so he could be there. When the day finally came, she married in Cleeve Church, where he watched with pride as she began her next chapter, a memory she shares with both pride and emotion.

Through all of life’s changes, Ruby’s heart has remained rooted in this land. She worked the fields even while pregnant, helping to feed the nation during wartime. Her family’s legacy lives on today, with her children and wider family still farming in the local area.

Now, as she settles into Bishops Cleeve Care Home, built on the very soil of her childhood, Ruby feels a deep sense of coming full circle.

“It feels like home,” says her daughter, Ruth Lloyd. “Mum has always wanted to stay close to where she grew up, and now she’s right back where it all began. Naming the household ‘Dean’ means the world to her, and to us.”

For Ruby, the renaming is more than just a tribute, it’s a recognition of the generations who worked, loved, and lived on this land.

“I feel honoured,” she says softly. “It’s lovely to think that after all these years, the name Dean will live on here.”

“Ruby’s story embodies everything we value here, community, family, and a sense of belonging,” said Tanya, Home Manager of Bishops Cleeve Care Home. “It’s incredibly special that our home now carries a name that reflects both Ruby’s history and the spirit of this area. We want every resident to feel their life story matters, and this tribute to Ruby is a beautiful reminder of that.”

Bishops Cleeve Care Home held a celebration for the renaming with a special event bringing together residents, families, and staff to honour Ruby’s remarkable life and the enduring spirit of the land that connects them all. For the team at Bishops Cleeve, the Dean household stands as a lasting tribute, a reminder that every resident brings their own history, heart, and heritage to the home.