Ages 4 to 84 Build Lego World Cup Trophy at Brampton Manor

It started as a box of Lego bricks and ended, weeks later, as a gleaming gold and green trophy standing in its own display case at the multi award-winning Newmarket care home, Brampton Manor, built brick by brick by a community that spanned three generations.

The project was a partnership between Brampton Manor and EPIC Dad, the family engagement organisation known locally for bringing fathers, children, and communities together through hands-on activities. The trophy set itself was funded and donated by Championing Social Care, the national organisation behind Care Home Open Week, which champions greater visibility and community connection for care homes across the country. The build was no small undertaking: a full-size Lego replica of the FIFA World Cup trophy, 2,842 pieces in total, arriving in 20 separate bags, each one representing another session, another sitting, another group of hands.

Rich Keeble of EPIC Dad led the build from start to finish, carrying the trophy between locations as it slowly took shape. By the second week of July, 16 of the 20 bags were already complete. The next stop was All Saints School in Newmarket, where an after-school session saw pupils complete bags 17, 18, and 19, carefully clicking gold bricks into place under Rich’s guidance. In total, around 15 people took part across the life of the project, the youngest just 8 years old, the oldest well into their 80s.

The final chapter, fittingly, landed on the biggest day in football’s calendar. On Sunday 19th July, World Cup Final day, Rich brought the trophy back to Brampton Manor one last time, bag 20 still to complete. Residents gathered round the build table in the home’s lounge, sleeves rolled up, sorting through scattered gold pieces as the last sections of the trophy’s base and handles came together. There was laughter, mugs of tea, the odd ice cream, and no shortage of opinions on the football unfolding on television that afternoon. By the time the final brick clicked into place, the room broke into applause.

“It was such a great Lego project in the community and it was great to bring it back to Brampton Manor and finish with the residents last Sunday,” said Rich Keeble of EPIC Dad. “Thank you to everyone for your support. I look forward to future Lego partnership projects with Brampton Manor.”

For the team at Brampton Manor, the appeal of the project was never really about the Lego itself.

“Watching our residents get so involved, laughing, comparing notes on the football, completely absorbed in getting those last few pieces right, was wonderful to see,” said Valda, Head of Lifestyle and Wellbeing at Brampton Manor. “Projects like this matter because they give our residents something to look forward to and be proud of, not just something to watch happen around them.”

The finished trophy now stands on permanent display at Brampton Manor in a new glass display case, a lasting centrepiece for a project that quietly connected a school, a home, and a community over the course of a few weeks in July.

“It’s a small thing in one sense, a Lego model, but it says a lot about what we want Brampton Manor to be,” said Akhi Goswami, Home Manager at Brampton Manor. “A place where residents, families, children, and neighbours all have a reason to walk through our doors together. We’re already looking forward to the next one.”