FOLLOWING the 60th anniversary celebrations of the Normandy landings, 86-year-old Bessie Atkinson has spoken about another important part of the war effort.

She refers to the day nurseries, which were set up to give parents involved in war work a safe environment for their pre-school children, from babies, who were still being bottle fed, to youngsters aged up to five.

Since most fathers were away in the forces, nurseries opened at 7am and remained open until after tea, to support mothers, while a 'collection and delivery' service was available for children who lived too far away to walk.

The parents paid one shilling (5p) per day, or 1/6d (7p) if they had to stay the night -- charges reflected servicemen's allowances for their children.

Mrs Atkinson first entered the system as deputy matron at Holden House nursery in Preston New Road, Blackburn, and was later appointed matron at St Alban's Place day nursery.

Here, two large houses had been converted into three areas of care -- for babies, 2/3-year-old toddlers and 4/5-year-olds. Each nursery had a cook, who provided staff and children with breakfast, lunch and tea, but any staff who lived on site needed their ration books!

Mrs Atkinson remembers that government-provided orange juice and cod liver oil were given to the children daily and a special baby milk and weaning diet was provided for the babies.

She said: "If mothers were involved in shift work they could leave the children in the nursery for a whole week, they came in at Sunday tea-time and stayed until lunchtime the following Saturday.

"On average, seven children used the night nursery on the first floor and each of our charges had a medical examination once a month and we had a doctor on call for emergencies. These were long hours for small children, but mothers needed to work and we grew up to know and love our little charges, especially those who were with us for a few years. The work was hard, the hours were long, but the nurseries gave invaluable support to the working mothers during the long war years. So many children came and went and, of course, there was laughter and tears in equal measure."

Mrs Atkinson enjoyed her years as matron and likes to think that in their way the day nurseries helped the war effort.