BIRDS and other wildlife will be able to nest along the canal at Pewsham Locks after residents from a specialist care home in Malmesbury created a number of bird boxes for during one of their activity sessions.

Residents at Stainsbridge House, who specialise in dementia care, visited the canal on Sunday, April 9 where they were shown the five specially created boxes up in the trees, which will hopefully encourage more wildlife to make the canals their home.

Activity coordinator Kim Preece said: “There are 46 residents in Stainsbridge House; organised activities are very important for people with dementia as many are unable to make decisions about what they want to do and so may just sit or wander about. We have a varied daily activity schedule to keep the residents engaged and interested.

“Last spring we made some nesting boxes for the garden, and residents enjoyed the drilling sanding and nailing so much that we decided to make some more!

“We had a very interesting, illustrated talk from Alan Lank, a volunteer from the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust and at the end we presented him with five of our homemade bird boxes. They have recently been put up along the towpath of the canal at Pewsham and on Sunday (April 9) we took a handful of residents to see them. It was a beautiful day and we walked up and down then sat on a bench to have our snack.

“People with dementia can’t always remember what they have recently done but they can remember the emotion and how happy they felt.”