Young and Old United by Lego for the World Cup
Award-winning Newmarket care home builds a replica World Cup trophy with local children and residents to mark Care Home Open Week 2026.
Brampton Manor care home in Newmarket has marked the start of Care Home Open Week by beginning a community Lego build of the FIFA World Cup trophy, bringing together residents and children from Clip Clop Nursery for the first session on 17 June.
Following the start of the build, Rich Keeble, founder of local charity Epic Dad, is taking it on a tour of Lego clubs across Suffolk, with every stop adding more bricks and more builders. It comes back to Brampton Manor on 19 July, the day of the World Cup Final, to be completed and put on permanent display.
Resident Joan, a former primary school teacher, captured what these sessions mean better than most. “I was a teacher of five to seven-year-olds for more than 30 years,” she said. “When I retired, I thought I was going to have a quiet retirement. How wrong I was.”
Joan isn’t alone in feeling that way. The Lego club has become one of the most loved parts of life at Brampton Manor, drawing in residents, nursery children, and staff families alike. One resident’s family began building Lego together at home after seeing what it sparked here. That ripple is precisely what the home’s partnership with Epic Dad, built over several years, and now woven into links with Newmarket Library and local schools, has always been about.
Ameet Kotecha, Founder of Boutique Care Homes, said:
“I am proud of the way we put intergenerational connections at the heart of the Brampton Manor ethos and I am delighted that we are hosting this event for Care Home Open Week. It is a great way to shine a positive light on our links to our local community. It will be fantastic fun too.”
Rich Keeble, founder of Epic Dad, said:
“It really is wonderful to partner with this care home to provide intergenerational Lego clubs. It’s a great, inclusive activity where everyone can be creative together.”
This is what Brampton Manor’s Life Enrichment Programme looks like in practice: not a timetable of activities, but genuine moments of connection between people who might never otherwise share a table. The home was awarded the Intergenerational Connections prize at the National Activity Awards in January 2026, and the World Cup trophy build is a good illustration of why.
Care Home Open Week runs from 15 to 21 June 2026, organised by Championing Social Care, and this year coincides with the opening week of the FIFA World Cup. The public is warmly invited to Brampton Manor on 19 July to see the finished trophy.
