Martello Manor Welcomes First Founding Residents

Martello Manor by Boutique Care Homes is officially open. On Monday 22 June 2026, one of Kent’s most anticipated new care homes welcomed its first residents through the doors, with the full team on hand to greet them and their families as they arrived home for the very first time.

Margaret and Joan have the honour of being Martello Manor’s founding residents, the first of many whose lives will be shaped by everything this home has been built to offer. Their arrival marks the moment months of preparation, community engagement, and anticipation became a lived reality.

The day began with a blessing of the home, led by Reverend Michael Darkins, Vicar of St Leonards Hythe, and Reverend Dr Anderson Yan Oakley, Organ Scholar: a meaningful start to a day the whole team had been working towards for months.

Then came the moment that will not be forgotten quickly. As Joan approached the entrance, team and families lined both sides of the doorway and broke into applause. A gold ribbon stretched across the threshold. She cut it herself, entering the home to cheers from everyone around her, and raised her arms in celebration. It was, by any measure, the right way to open a home.

Inside, the warmth continued. Marlene Abreu, Home Manager, was there to welcome her personally, the same care and attention that will define every day at Martello Manor already on full display. Families who had spent weeks, sometimes months, navigating the transition to residential care found themselves not in a clinical institution, but in a home: warm, beautifully designed, and staffed by people who were genuinely delighted to have them there.

The opening is a milestone for Boutique Care Homes and for Hythe. Martello Manor has been designed from the ground up to offer something the area has not had before: premium residential and dementia care that feels nothing like a care home should, in a building purpose-built to make life genuinely good for the people who live in it.

Marlene Abreu said: “Today is the day everything we have been working towards becomes real. Every decision we have made about the home, the team, the way we do things, has been made with our residents in mind. Welcoming our first residents through the doors is one of the proudest moments of my career, and it is just the beginning.”

Ameet Kotecha, Founder and Managing Director of Boutique Care Homes, said: “We set out to prove that care can be unexpectedly good, that it can feel warm, dignified, and full of life. Martello Manor is the finest expression of that belief we have built yet. Hythe deserves this, and we are honoured to be here.”

Martello Manor offers residential care, specialist dementia support through Boutique Care Homes’ Nostalgia Care programme, and short-stay respite care. Residents benefit from a dedicated Life Enrichment Programme, fresh meals prepared daily by an on-site chef, ensuite bedrooms, landscaped gardens, a bistro, cinema, and hair salon. The home sits at the heart of the Hythe community, with established partnerships already in place with Hythe Town Football Club, the Royal British Legion Hythe and Saltwood Branch, and the Hythe Dementia Awareness Forum.

For more information or to arrange a visit, contact the Martello Manor team at www.martellomanor.care.