John found a  very large derelict house on the fringe of Farnborough, called Broadhurst. It needed a lot of work to bring it to life again, let alone make it habitable, and with no money he and a few supporters had to do much of the initial work by hand, clearing piles of fallen brickwork,  stopping water ingress, clearing the overall site. However, the plan needed money, real money. John and his social worker colleague had a clear vision of a Christian centre for the care of the mentally ill. Hence, the first port of call was the local churches. Members of two churches in Frimley nearby responded to the call, and a committee was set up involving a range of organisations and local dignitaries. Substantial loans were obtained, and things rolled on from there . However, loans needed to be repaid. The files show hundreds of small donations, and also the amount of effort that was spent approaching organisations and running myriad small events for fund raising.

By this time the organisation had been formally defined and registered as a charity, The Welcome Home Community, a number of people had been brought in to support it.  Of course, there were big battles to be won on the legal and county registration side, and staffing to be resolved, (with no money to pay for them), local residents needed reassuring that they had nothing to fear from the ultimate residents. John  spearheaded all this, and finally the house opened to residents with a dedication ceremony on 21 May 1969

The charity had myriad ups and downs and John eventually withdrew.

The charity eventually became  strong enough to sell-off more land, and in 1987, build a new purpose-built residence and pull down the old house. In 1994, this new residence was sold to Heathlands Mental Health NHS Trust as a mental health rehabilitation and community centre (Briarwood), and the rest of the land was sold to eager developers. In even more recent times the subsequent mental health trust, Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Trust, decided that they no longer needed it, and sold it on for more housing!

However, Broadhurst lives on. The money from the  sale of land and the house to  Heathlands MH Trust was invested, and in 1995, this investment provided a major fund to support local organisations concerned with helping the mentally ill, and individual financial grants to support people and families in need.

In the 1960s the government decided that the large Victorian mental health homes were not the proper place for most of the people in them – they should be out in the community. So, they set about closing these establishments – in our case the huge building at Brookwood not far from Farnborough.  Unfortunately, there was little provision for where the residents would go!

In 1967 John Richardson, our founder, aided and abetted by a senior Social Worker, determined to do something about this, for at least a few of their many residents.