The owner of Meaford Day Nursery says the recent flooding has been a “nightmare” for the nursery.
Adele Cheadle, who runs the nursery in Meaford Road, opposite the George & Dragon pub, couldn’t open on Friday because of the initial flooding and had a mad day getting in touch with parents and fitting as many children as she could into their sister nursery on the Whitebridge estate, Meaford Fields.
“I knew things were going to be bad,” she said, “because I couldn’t get the car anywhere near the nursery. I had to park on the Darlaston Inn car park and wade over.”
But things were going to get much worse.
On Sunday morning she was called by the police after the flooding intensified, leading to vehicles being almost totally submerged just feet from the nursery gate. The nursery’s garden at the front was totally flooded and Adele, arriving at the scene, couldn’t get anywhere near the nursery.
Adele said: “I had to go through a neighbour’s garden and a couple of hedges to get into the nursery grounds. Luckily, there was no flood damage to the building, although most of the grounds at the front were under water. I couldn’t believe it.”
Amazingly, the nursery was open on Monday, although Meaford Road itself was in a state, covered in mud, silt and debris. It was mechanically swept on Monday but – after water levels rose again today – will have to be done again.
Adele said: “We just want to get back to normal now and make things as familiar as we can for the children again. It’s been a bit of an adventure for them really – quite a few have been asking if they can go and splash around in the big puddle and this morning they saw the minibus being towed away.
“But we want to get back to normality now. We’ve got rehearsals for the Christmas concerts and we’ve had to rearrange the Christmas fayre because of the flood so it’s business as usual from now. Hopefully we’re over the worst.”
Adele took over ownership of the nursery three years ago but has worked there for the last decade. And she has never seen flooding like it.
“I spoke to someone in the village yesterday,” she said, “who’s lived in Meaford for 50 years and they’ve never seen flooding like it. We all think that there’s something wrong with the canal and the culvert, which seems to be blocked. Hopefully it can be sorted out so this doesn’t happen again.”
Adele thanked parents for their support and understanding over the last few days and said one parent had brought chocolates and flowers into the nursery this morning as a thank you!
The nursery had to cancel their Christmas fayre that was planned for Saturday 24th November because of the flooding. It will now be held on Saturday 8th December between 10am and noon.
You can see more flooding pictures on Meaford Day Nursery’s Facebook page.
