The tracing study is now complete, thanks to nearly 100 volunteer co-researchers. The study was set up to enable us to establish what became of the 173 homes visited by Peter Townsend in 1958/59, and we decided to involve older people as co-researchers in this project for two reasons.
The first was a practical reason. The homes Townsend visited were spread across England and Wales in counties as far apart as Cornwall and Northumberland, Kent and Cumbria, and including homes in East Anglia and west Wales. It soon became obvious that we would need to call on local expertise for the detailed information we needed. The volunteers have been able to locate and visit sites, consult local people and records in many different venues and sources, among them the local records office, local directories, newspapers, council minutes, land registry documents, electoral registers and planning applications. Often chance meetings during enquiries in newsagents or local history libraries set the researcher onto the right track, and the site of the home being investigated (for which we often could supply no address) was discovered.
The second reason we wished to recruit older people as volunteers was that, as gerontologists we were keen to involve older people in the research in order to explore the possibilities of using this methodology on a larger scale than had been undertaken before. The results of the study indicate that many people wish to continue to learn and to be active in research in retirement. The reports written by volunteers were of a high quality and most contained not only the information we asked for, but valuable additional material such as photographs and documents as evidence.
We have now analysed the data gathered by the volunteers. The material has revealed that there were many different reasons why some homes survived, whereas others had to close. It has also disclosed that, although some of the homes (mainly the former PAIs) have been demolished, many have had very varied post-care home roles as, for example, a vetinary surgery, age-restricted flats and maisonettes, a hall for civic functions and cultural activities, private family homes, council offices, a hostel for the homeless and a resource centre for children. Some buildings were considered important enough to preserve as listed buildings, although the function changed, and even some of the former PAIs have been preserved:
The former chapel and staff housing were included in the [Housing Association] plans. A condition was that the main original building should be preserved as much as possible. While much has been demolished, many old features of the Tower buildings remain in the terrace of houses set around a court with communal gardens called Tower Court, including the original tower itself, now converted into flats.
(Evidence from a volunteer researcher)