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DAY NURSERIES
Your day nursery service was originated during the war years
to look after children whose mothers were contributing to the war
effort, but was developed and maintained to care for those whose
mothers were unmarried, widowed or otherwise forced by financial
circumstances to go out to work.
The premises of Eastbury House and Lodge Farm were taken
over in 1942, and a prefabricated building was erected at Gale Street
in 1943. On the "appointed day" plans were well in hand for taking
over the old Castle School as a fourth day nursery, and Rippleside was
opened in 1950. At the beginning of 1953 the four day nurseries were
full and there were 134 children on the waiting lists for admission.
By the end of the year, however, attendances and the demand for
places had fallen so precipitately that we were forced to recommend
DAY NURSERIES - DEMAND FOR PLACES JULY 1952-DECEMBER 1955
Figure 8
the closure of Lodge Farm and you were not unaware that it might be
necessary to close a second nursery. As will be seen from Figure
the falling off in demand for this service coincided with the imposition
by the County Council in January of a greatly increased scale o
charges, with a maximum of 7s. 6d. against your old standard charge
of 2s. per day. You have held the opinion that this increase in charges
has been directly responsible for this position, although it is to
remembered that a similar position has arisen over most of the country
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