Profile

Little Hands is a Private Nursery School specialising in quality education for the under fives and offers

Flexible hourly booking - open 08.30 to 16.30 Term time bookings with optional holiday club

Bumble Bee room for children 12 – 24 months

Ladybird room for 2 year olds

Butterfly room for children 3-5 years With optional “ready for school sessions”

Holiday club for children aged 12 months to 8 years

All sessions have a high staff to child ratio and are available for funded 2 year olds and funded 3/4 year olds with no extra charges

Categorised as “Outstanding” by Ofsted

For further information please contact Anne McCrossen - Nursery Manager : 01763 260964 e-mail lh-melbourn@btconnect.com

Little Hands is also at Bourn, Linton and Newton visit the website at www.littlehands.co.uk

Rosemary & Douglas Gatward

Rosemary Fuller was born at her grandparents house in Victoria Road, Cambridge just before the second World War. Her father worked in one of the college kitchens and her mother was in service in Newnham Terrace. Rosemary takes quiet pleasure in the fact that one of her granddaughters is now studying at Queens’ College almost opposite the place where her great grandmother was a maidservant.

Four years after Rosemary was born sister Helena came along. Their father was by this time working at the Atlas, they were living in a little cottage on the corner of Chiswick End, Meldreth and with Rosemary’s maternal grandparents running The Dumb Flea at Chiswick End there was plenty of family support. This was just as well, because at the outbreak of war father went into the army as a chef and never really came back home again, Mrs. Fuller having to take numerous jobs to keep herself and the girls. Despite this, Rosemary has the happiest memories of her childhood where they all ran wild in the meadows and there were lots of aunts and cousins with whom to spend time.

Both girls initially went to school in Meldreth but when she was 5 Helena was diagnosed with a tubercular knee joint and spent the next six years mainly in hospital, frequently being strapped to the bed to prevent her from moving. Later on it was realised that this illness was in fact rheumatoid arthritis! Rosemary moved from Meldreth school to St. Mary’s Convent in Royston and later on when Mrs. Fuller got a job in Baldock she attended Baldock Secondary Modern. During this time Mrs. Fuller contracted TB and was hospitalised so the young Rosemary was looked after by an aunt in Letchworth and other members of the family.

Rosemary’s ambition was to become a telephonist but she took a job in the accounts department at Kayser Bondor in Baldock (this iconic listed building is now a Tesco store). She did a day release course at Letchworth Technical College where she learned shorthand and typing eventually getting a job at Bennett’s Motor Works in Baldock where she met a young trainee agricultural engineer called Douglas Gatward.

Douglas was born in Therfield – a farmworker’s son. When he was a young lad his father became stockman at Standalone Farm – now famous as an ‘open farm’. Douglas did not want to leave Therfield and on moving day he ran away and hid, causing quite a stir.

So the couple knew each other at Bennett’s and when Douglas went to do his National Service Rosemary carried on working there, although she had moved back to Meldreth to keep an eye on her sick grandmother, travelling to and from Baldock on a steam train. Douglas served in the Northamptonshire Regiment in Hong Kong – it took six weeks to sail there and it was certainly a great experience. On his return to civvy street he and Rosemary resumed their friendship and became engaged on her 21st birthday in June 1958. Rosemary changed jobs and worked for Letchworth Printers as secretary to the editor of Essex Countryside and Thames Valley Countryside. They were married a year later at All Saints’ in Melbourn, where she had attended Sunday School. They pointed out to me that 1959 also marked the opening of Melbourn Village College, the Birmingham to London M1 and the birth of the Mini. Rosemary has always run a Mini! For nearly a year they lived with Douglas’s parents in Letchworth and then moved to The Close in Royston.

Jane was born in 1962 and Richard in 1964 (Rebecca came along six years later) and pushing a pram up Royston High Street with lorries thundering past soon prompted Rosemary to join the campaign for the A10 to be diverted. This was to be the start of a long involvement in local affairs. When Sylvia Beamon started the Retreat Group in Royston she also instigated a series of small playgroups meeting informally in different houses and Rosemary was part of this new venture. It was therefore a natural progression that when the family moved to Chapmans Close in 1966 Rosemary, on finding that the URC playgroup was bursting at the seams, got some of the members of the Young Wives and started the All Saints’ Playgroup, meeting in the newly built Church Hall. There was quite a lot of red tape to go through and Health and Safety issues such as the necessity for a large asbestos mat for the kettle! Rosemary’s committee ran the playgroup for over 30 years and during that time got to know many young families.

She joined the Parish Council in 1979 and has served under ten Chairmen and has been Chairman herself. With her knowledge of youngsters she was appointed a Governor of the Primary School and did a 30 year stint. Church warden for 20 years – you can see that she is a stayer – Rosemary has dedicated much of her life to this village. As the longest serving Parish Councillor she has a particular interest in Conservation and Planning and is passionate about preserving the character of Melbourn. I remember from my years on the council that Rosemary was always keen to know what building materials Rosemary was always keen to know what building materials were being used, what the colour of the roof would be and what would be the impact on the overall street scene.

The children grew up in Melbourn Schools, Jane becoming Head Girl at Melbourn Village College, and all went on to Long Road Sixth Form College. Jane is a mental health nurse, married with one son and Richard married with four daughters. Richard always shone at maths and worked in Saxon Way and when the company was sold and relocated to Sussex he moved with them, becoming Financial Director. The youngest, Rebecca, is a Survey Director at the Institute for Social Research at Michigan University – from whence she continues to run the All Saints Flower Rota! She went to Loughborough University doing her Masters in London and became a Civil Servant at the Office of National Statistics – her last posting there was very hush hush – dealing with the M.P.’s expenses scandal.

Both Rosemary and Douglas enjoy gardening and Rosemary is particularly interested in flower arranging and craftwork, and her sister Helena always helps out at the bi-annual Flower Festival. Douglas loves DIY and had his hands full when the family moved to The Red House in 1971 as there was a great deal of work to do. He continues to tinker with cars and has an old Mini and a Fordson Dexter tractor at the end of the garden ‘waiting to be restored’. He enjoys pigeon shooting and is also a volunteer driver for the Community Transport Scheme. They are very fond of France spending many holidays there and have also hosted French families they met through exchange schemes with the girls. They have been to the USA four times, visiting Rebecca in Michigan and taking the opportunity of travelling around.

They are a real ‘Melbourn Couple’ and there is not much that Rosemary does not know about the village. She has had two generations of children through her hands at Playgroup so it is not surprising that she is so well known. Despite a fragmented childhood she has become the epitome of the earth mother, the family matriarch with Douglas quietly supportive in the background. Mavis Howard.