feature – “Our Rosemary” – Playgroups

feature

“Our Rosemary” – Playgroups

by Sylvia Beamon

I have only lived in Melbourn since June last year, after a series of misfortunes. First a broken left foot metatarsal, then a stroke and then a broken hip. Major Surgery and admission to four local hospitals, including the two for rehabilitation, were necessary over ten months. My whole life was to dramatically change. Later I was to hear of the untimely death of a friend of mine, Rosemary Gatward in February of 2020.

In September 1961, my family and I moved from Mill Hill in North London, seeking a home in Royston. Hilary Lovell, the Midwife who had delivered my two elder sons, suggested that when I moved I should start a Parent and Social group similar to the one she had introduced me to.

At the time, I was training to become a National Childbirth Trust (London) antenatal teacher in the up-to-date Psycho-Physical method, as used in the Mill Hill Clinic)

I founded the Royston Retreat Parent & Social Group with just a handful of invited young women meeting in the lounge of our new house. I was a very shy person, never having seriously started a group, nor run a committee. It was years before I could stand up in front of people and read the minutes without my knees knocking together. The only thing I understood was the value of minutes (my secretarial knowledge and skills came to the fore here). At one of the Mill Hill group’s meetings a New Zealand speaker had explained their Country’s Plunket system for Playgroups. Hilary Lovell offered to be one of our first speakers at a Royston meeting.

Rosemary and her family lived just around the corner, in the next road from us. At different times, she joined the ‘Retreat’; as the new group became known, my antenatal classes took off and, finally, the Playgroups (three ‘Home ones’ plus four in Halls opened). It was amazing how quickly we expanded. Obviously there was a need in the locality for such activities.

I grew to know Rosemary well and really liked her. I also recognised she was a shy, diffident person, but most of all was always reliable and keen in whatever she did for anyone.

The Melbourn All Saints’ playgroup –carrying on the New Zealand Plunket system One morning Rosemary dropped round to see me, just after her move to Melbourn, explaining she would like to open a Playgroup in the village, possibly in All Saints’ Church Hall, and could I help her. I readily agreed to go with her to look at the hall to ‘suss’ it out.

Playgroups in the ‘sixties were a new venture for Britain. Private fee-paying nurseries were available; they employed a Nursery Nurse, to be in charge, and paid helpers to run them. Playgroups, however, existed on a “shoestring”, which necessitated that ALL the mothers took turns on a rota to help on a regular basis. Few tangible regulations existed then: no-one could join unless they were prepared to help.

I had taken much useful information from the Plunket women before embarking on those new Royston examples. ‘Home’ ones opened first: eight mothers and eight children in each one or set, for two mornings a week, with two Mums in charge – the official ratio was one adult to six children but here we worked with one adult to four children. For Halls, it was 24 mothers and 24 children (3 sets), plus a Nursery Nurse or Infant Teacher.

When Mrs. Burgess, an HCC Health Visitor and the first one to be assigned to work in Royston, arrived she

had never come across playgroups before and did not really approve of the Retreat activities, any more than did the Town Council. But Mrs. Burgess grew to accept them, particularly after we helped two town families who had real ongoing difficulties, as exampled below.

One young mother had died leaving two under-five boisterous boys motherless. Granny took over their care whilst the husband worked. But what about Granny? Our ratio of adults (mother/helpers) to children was a minimum of one to four children. One to six, was the norm as mentioned before. Mrs. Burgess came on board and became very involved with our discussions at Committee level as to how both boys could be accommodated in a Hall playgroup. We agreed that Granny should be exempt from’ helping’ unless she wanted to, otherwise she could have some time for herself.

The other mother had a young girl with a spina bifida problem meaning that she had to help with her toileting etc., yet she could join in as a helper if she chose. It proved to be a most successful experience for both mother and child – they just loved it.

Nursery rhyme titles or those from children’s stories were chosen for each set by the Mums, such as – ‘Jack and Jill, Tom Thumb,’ ‘Cinderella’.

What a ‘sassy’ woman Rosemary was. She was very successfully running her playgroup for Melbourn and I was delighted because I knew what an effort it was initially for her. Of course, she gained much more confidence with support from her family, and the Melbourn community was to greatly benefit.

All Saints’ Playgroup opened in 1968 and ran for around 30 years in the then newly built Church Hall. It is now known as Melbourn Playgroup, after moving to the Primary School. In a 1986 Newsletter the playgroup is described for new parents as: “an independent group of hardworking, patient and dedicated helpers who, together with mothers (and fathers, grannies, grandads and aunties and uncles) all work together to create a happy place where children aged from nearly three to school age have a chance to learn, through play, and to develop the social skills they will need in their school life – the ability to sit and listen quietly, to be able to work in a group and so on. Also, and just as important, we try to offer parents and children the chance to meet together out of playgroup on occasions like our summer outing and sports day. Parents help by taking their turns on the rota for the daily sessions and with fund raising.”