Our Story

Enrych was established in 1986 by Leonard Cheshire and Sue Ryder, but its story begins much earlier. In the aftermath of World War II, when Leonard Cheshire faced a dire situation when his first charity for ex-servicemen failed, leaving him with £18,000 in debt and an empty 25-bedroom stately home.

 

Amongst his financial struggles, a nurse from a local hospital called, asking if he could help find a place for a terminally ill ex-serviceman; Arthur, to be cared for in his final months. He accepted this challenge but after weeks of searching and failing to find a place, Cheshire invited Arthur to live with him. He took a three-day nursing course, then took Arthur home to begin caring for him. Arthur's final request was for Cheshire to help others in need and to do everything in his power to keep the stately home. Cheshire listened, he sold everything he possibly could to pay off his debts. Shortly after, another call came, this time to care for a woman with a physical disability who had no place to go, Leonard took her in. Months passed, the calls kept coming and Cheshire kept taking people in, eventually the home was full to capacity.

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As you can imagine, with a large house full of residents, Leonard was incredibly busy, he noticed that the residents seemed to want to make use of their time and help him. Cheshire assigned each of able and willing to fulfil a task each day to help run the house, after a while he noticed that they seemed happier and some even began to feel better. This realisation reinforced the message we promote today: to enable people to live with purpose.​

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After the great success of Leonard's first residential home, he began expanding and by 1955 bought his fifth Cheshire home at Staunton Harold.

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Click on the pictures for a closer look!