ONE of the region's oldest charities will today - its 732nd birthday - announce plans for a £2m care home.

Work will begin this month on creating the 35-place home in the grounds of the Hospital of God at Greatham.

The three-storey home will provide places for people who need 24-hour care.

Individual rooms will be bigger than Government requirements and there will be a courtyard, large communal and social room, three smaller sitting rooms, tea bars, disabled bathing facilities and a treatment room.

Gus Robinson Developers of Hartlepool will start work on the home this month and it will open in January next year.

On completion, the existing home in a 200-year-old listed building will be turned into sheltered housing for the elderly, providing 15 units.

Founded in 1273 by Robert de Stichell, Bishop of Durham, the charity provides residential care and accommodation for elderly people in Greatham and surrounding area.

As well as the residential care home, which was refurbished in 1993, the charity owns 45 houses which it lets at a nominal rent to elderly people on low incomes.

The organisation also makes grants to other charitable causes. In recent years, it has given money to charities which help people with drug and alcohol dependence, young homeless people and people who have suffered strokes.

David Granath, the charity's director, said: "The charity intends that the new home will be one of the best in the North-East and that it will be available to anyone irrespective of their financial means or religious belief."