Noisy nursery protesters marching with pushchairs

Oxford Mail photographer Chris Love captured the vociferous group as they marched past Magdalen College on their way to Oxford Town Hall.

Oxford city councillors were holding their monthly meeting in the council chamber and the protesters were determined to make their feelings known.

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The 30 mothers, some with pushchairs, handed in a petition with 1,000 signatures demanding nurseries for under-fives at Blackbird Leys.

Mother-of-four Joyce Pritchard, of Balfour Road, told the council that families on the estate were asking for nurseries to be open all day, with places for all children under five “regardless of circumstances”. They should also be free.

She said Blackbird Leys had 900 children under five and had only one nursery with just 30 places. It took most children for just half a day in the term before they started school.

She told councillors: “We feel that free day-long nurseries are a basic right for mothers so they can have time of their own.”

The mothers’ campaign was supported by the Oxford Women’s Action Group and women students at Oxford University.

The group were escorted by two women police officers on their march along High Street in 1970.

This wasn’t the only time that families in Oxford launched a protest about nurseries.

As we have recalled, mothers and their children staged a 24-hour sit-in and sleep-in at Grandpont nursery in South Oxford in 1978 when councillors decided it should close.

The protest was organised by the Oxford City Nursery Campaign, whose members arranged public meetings, demonstrations, petition signings and a carnival to publicise their protest. It received widespread coverage in the media.

The occupation lasted for more than two weeks, parents and children taking turns to sleep there and guard doorways against unwelcome intruders.