Pamela Edwards founded Formby Day Nursery in 1975 and is this year celebrating 50 years in business
Founder Pamela Edwards celebrating 50 years of Formby Day Nursery(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
A family-run nursery at the heart of one Merseyside town is celebrating 50 years in business. Back in 1975, Pamela Edwards, known as Mrs Edwards to generations of children, founded Formby Day Nursery inside Cullen House on Church Road, Formby, where it has remained for the last half a century.
Pamela and her husband Ted moved their family to the area from Essex in 1965 and from there, the nursery has continued to grow, seeing thousands of children pass through its doors. Through the decades, Pamela’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have also grown up around the business and four generations of the family now work there.
Now 89, Pamela still runs the nursery to this day, which offers its services to children between the ages of three months and four years. Today, January 4, marks 50 years since the nursery first opened and Pamela, who has three children, eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren said she’s not ready to retire just yet.
Pamela told the ECHO: “I lived in Essex and I had a playgroup there, family-run again. Then my husband’s job moved to here so we came here and discovered in Formby there were no playgroups for the children at all, so I opened up in the British Legion as a playgroup.
“Then we went to the Methodist in Formby United Reform in Formby, then we moved on and I’ve opened 13 in different areas – Fazakerley, Billinge, places like that. I had something like 13 playgroups and three day nurseries in church halls and then I was driving past here one day and I saw the sign go up by the estate agents and it was going up for sale.
Pamela Edwards with children at a Christmas party at Formby Day Nursery years ago(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
“The lady who had it had already ran a small playgroup here, so it had planning permission already – so I jumped in quick and opened the day nursery. We’ve been here 50 years now. I remember the first day, clearly. We only had four children and it’s grown from there. It has gone quick, I have to say.”
Through the years, the nursery has expanded from just operating in the front room of the building to using multiple rooms and also building an extension at the back. Today, the family-run nursery now looks after 46 children – ten times more than their first day in 1975.
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Through the years, Pamela hasn’t only seen generations of her own family grow up in and then go on to work at the nursery, but different generations from the area come through their doors. In many cases, Pamela said members of the same family have come to Formby Day Nursery and when they have grown up, they have brought their own children to Cullen House.
Pamela said: “I have seen hundreds of thousands of children. I find if I go shopping anywhere, I’ll hear a little voice say, ‘look, there’s grandma.’
Pamela and her family have been a part of thousands of children’s early years(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
“That’s because my grandchildren work here, they call me grandma, and my grandchildren’s children come here. Generations keep on coming here – I’ve got my youngest great-grandchild now waiting to start an apprenticeship to come here.”
For their 50th celebrations, outside the building is decorated with banners and bunting and every child has a small teddy bear to take home to mark the occasion. The family have rediscovered albums full of memories with dozens of decades-old photographs on display, as well as old Formby Times articles the nursery featured in back in the 1970s.
Formby Day Nursery is celebrating 50 years, with founder Pamela Edwards (centre)(Image: Photo by Andrew Teebay)
Pamela said she’d loved looking back on the last half a century and that the community have been so happy for the family reaching this massive milestone. She added: “Everyone has been really excited about it. A lot of them think I’m retiring, which isn’t the case. – I’m not intending to retire yet. I love, Iove, the excitement of all the children coming in and all the staff. There’s something new every day.”