Fernhill House residents are looking forward to getting out and about in an unusual way - on a bicycle rickshaw!   

The home is running a series of fun fundraising activities to buy the £6,500 vehicle – also known as a trishaw – starting with a sweepstake to predict the winner of this season’s Strictly Come Dancing competition.   

Home manager Peta Mandleberg, whose colleagues came up with the idea, explained: “We’re all about having fun here and living our lives to the full. We often run days out – to the beach, the races, to stately homes – and have drinks, barbecues and musical events.   

“We’ve recently acquired an old fashioned ice cream bicycle and that gave us the idea that it would be fun for the residents to sit in the side car and be cycled around the grounds and the village – rather like Wallace and Gromit but with slightly less Wensleydale.”   

The idea of enabling residents to take to the nearby highways and byways under pedal power was mooted after staff read about a similar scheme launched in progressive Denmark – whose fun and independent approach to retirement living has been a model for Fernhill House.   

That project, Cycling without Age, has now spread to more than 30 other countries where some 1,500 trishaws are in use, some of which have elderly friendly features such as lifts, safety belts and specially designed blankets.  

All money raised will be matched by the home’s owners Majesticare.  

* Fernhill House's ice cream bicycle which inspired the trishaw idea