Wynne Richards founded the nursery 64 years ago along with three other mums
Wynne Richards founded the nursery 64 years ago along with three other mums(Image: Keren Leivesley)
Sixty four years ago, when Keren Leivesley was just a baby her mum, Wynne Richards, along with three other mums, founded a pram club which later became St James’ Pre-School. Today, July 15, the nursery will sadly close its doors for good, following financial struggles. The nursery has been at the heart of Woolton since it opened its doors in 1961. Since then, it has seen hundreds of children come through its doors, including Keren, from Woolton.
She told the ECHO: “It was my mum and three other mums, one of which was married to Reverend David Dunn Wilson, who was the minister at the time, who set it up when I was a baby, I’m 64 now. I have a sister who is two years older than me and at the time my mum and the other mums belonged to St James’ Church.
“In those days people didn’t have cars so every week the mums of the church would walk together to Garston market twice a week. But, when they had more than one child it got too much so they got together and made a rota for the mums to serve child care in the church hall.
“Every week, some mums would look after the children and the others would go to the market to get their shopping. It went on for a few years, then when the older children went to school it became a play group.”
It remained a play group for many years, until social services got involved after estates in communities, like Belle Vale, were built in the late sixties, says Keren. She told the ECHO how the support service asked if children from the new estates could attend the church play group and it “blossomed from there.”
She said: “My mum left after we’d [Keren and her sister] grown and gone to school, then the new mums came. Eventually it turned into the pre-school that it is – or was – today. It was always set up to be a service for the community. It started from a couple of mums coming to together to go to Garston market and it’s gone on for 60 years from that.”
Wynne Richards was part of St James’ Church when she founded the pram club(Image: Keren Leivesley)
St James’ Pre-School has always been a charity based pre-school, meaning it relies on fundraising. However, trustee, Rebecca Waters told the ECHO how it came under pressure due to rising costs and unfortunately due to lack of funding the heartbreaking decision was made to close.
The building will shut today after the nursery pick-up, following the children’s final leavers services yesterday (Monday). An open house is being held on Wednesday, July 16, from 9:30am to 12 noon at the preschool.
For Keren the date of the closure is especially poignant, as it would have been her mum’s birthday. Wynne died in 2003, aged 76. Keren said: “It’s a very sad day, especially because today is my mum’s birthday, she would have been 101. It’s such a sad loss for the whole community.”
Keren Leivesley, now 64, was a baby when Wynne founded the club(Image: Keren Leivesley)
Mum Rebecca Waters, who grew up in Woolton before moving to Halewood, recalled how the pre-school has been a huge part of her life and shared treasured memories from over the years. She said: “I went there as a little girl, so did my sister, our cousins. My mum was a manager for almost 20 years and our current manager, Deb, has been there for 30 years – her children were in my class.
“Hundreds and hundreds of children have been through these doors. We’ve got grandparents, who used to come here when they were children, who then brought their children who now bring their children, it’s been generational. It’s something that is going to be missed in the community and I don’t think people realise how much they will miss it until it’s actually gone.”
Despite fighting to save the treasured nursery staff were unable to stop prevent he closure. Rebecca continued: “For us it’s quite emotional, we have fought for a couple of years to keep the doors open and make enough money to keep going.
St James’ Pre School on Church Road South, Woolton(Image: Picture by St James Pre School)
“Unfortunately, we have been facing a huge increase in minimum wage, a severe lack of funding in the early years sector, a decline in the uptake of places and the cost to rent the premises. Due to the combination of difficulties, sadly it’s no longer financially viable for us to continue.
“Over the past few years we have explored every possible avenue to secure the necessary resources to enable us to continue including grants, budget adjustments and the many fundraising events that our wonderful families have supported, but sadly, these efforts have not been enough to sustain us in the long term, so unfortunately we have had to make the decision to close.”
She added: “When they [the children] get picked up on Tuesday that’s when our doors will close for good, it’s going to be really sad. It’ll affect a lot of people in the community, we currently have 26 children but it will affect many more.
“We are absolutely devastated that we have no choice but to close the doors. I think it’s something the community will feel for many years to come.”