Gloria Hunniford opens Durrants Village in West Sussex
The television and radio personality, Gloria Hunniford, was on great form chatting with property owners and guests at Durrants Village, a new retirement development in Faygate near Horsham which she opened last week. She particularly enjoyed exploring the facilities including the billiard room in the clubhouse where she is pictured.
Gloria, 76, was invited to unveil Martlet House, which houses 12 two-bedroom apartments, in the latest phase of the scheme in West Sussex which will have 154 apartments and cottages in total when completed.
She opened the show home and was given a tour of the bar, library and indoor-heated swimming pool. This was Gloria’s first visit to a retirement village and even though she was very impressed with the facilities she confessed she could not see herself retiring to one.
“Anyone who downsizes me is going to have a heck of a job,” she declared.
“The trouble is I never throw anything away; I have clothes going back decades. So I have appointed two wardrobe girls and told them to get rid of everything after I go.
“But I am truly impressed with Durrants Village – it is a wonderful concept.”
Well-known for her work on television programmes such as Cash in the Attic and Rip off Britain, Gloria mingled with residents and friends and met Valerie (pictured) and Arthur Slack, 78, who had lost their son when he was just 50 in a motor cycle accident six years ago.
The presenter was able to empathise with the Slacks as she lost her own daughter Caron Keating from breast cancer in 2004. Interestingly the Slacks moved from a retirement apartment they had bought in November to move to Durrants Village. “Had we known about Durrants Village we would have come straight here; we made a mistake – we should have met the other owners first before we bought.”
At Durrants Village, which also has a restaurant, some 105 properties have already been built with a further 50 due to be completed at the end of next year. Designed for the over 55s, they range from two-bedroom apartments to three-bedroom cottages.
The properties are set in extensive grounds comprising 30 acres of parkland four miles from the market town of Horsham and a short walk from Faygate railways station. A separate care home, which will be run independently, will be built on the site at the end of 2017.
For more information visit Durrants Village
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