Meet the faces behind Back To the Garden nursery in Lymm

Jeannie and Stewart Pickering founded the unique ‘child-led’ nursery back in 2018 but their journey to get here has been far from normal.

Jeannie, originally from the Wirral, began studying fashion in Manchester when she first met her husband Stewart back in the 70s. He was passionate about music and had travelled from his hometown of Hull to study physics and electronics at the University of Manchester.

The pair then made the decision to join a commune in the Lake District before returning to Manchester several years later to focus on their careers.

Jeannie, a creative soul, taught art and movement dance in primary and secondary schools while Stewart also began teaching in secondary schools, putting his dream of music on the back burner.

“One of the things that opened my eyes during my training was learning about aesthetics, how you set your space up and how you create an environment for children.” Jeannie said.

She described the environment you teach children in as the ‘third teacher’ and that is the ethos they have taken on when building Back to The Garden.

Jeannie taught in ‘The High School Of Art’ in Manchester and she described it as being like the school in the film ‘fame’. The school was opposite Strangeways prison in a derelict building and from working there this ‘sparked’ her creativity and vision of learning that she has now created with their nursery group.

The owner explained how many of the pupils she taught at the age of seven would say to her ‘Miss I am rubbish at that’.

“I used to always think, who has told you that, someone has said that to you because no one at that age has that mentality, at that age you just create.”

In 1979, their careers took another turn as the couple opened ‘Graveyard Studios’, a recording studio in Prestwich. Stewart was in a folk-rock band at the time, and they decided to convert their basement in their family home into a studio.

“We had a basement in our house in Prestwich, a big old Georgian terrace down Church Road. We found we had two rooms so we said we could rehearse in one and record in the other. Then suddenly we found people asking if they could record in the studio and it evolved from there.

“Joy Division recorded there in our basement; Sad Café wrote an album in there,” Stewart said.

But fast forward to the late 80s, the couple had had their first son, Simon, and found a dilemma in finding him a suitable nursery where they could see him learn and develop in the way they had always envisioned, this is when ‘Kidsunlimited’ was born.The couple were the former founders of 'Kidsunlimited' a huge nursery chain that spanned over all areas of the UK. (Image: Facebook)

Jeannie and Stewart set up the successful chain of nurseries which started at a building in Wilmslow in 1983, with the idea to not only create a great childcare facility but also to give women the opportunity to go back to work.

“When we created Kidsunlimited, it was named ‘kids of Wilmslow’ and a lot of people in Wilmslow said it wouldn’t be successful, they said ‘women don’t want to go back to work’ but as a mother myself I knew a lot of women did, and the nursery was full capacity and very successful.”

The pair decided to start expanding and built what turned out to be a small empire of nurseries around the country, running many of their nurseries in workplaces for well-known brands and major organisations.

“Midland Bank hit the press just after our second branch was up and running saying there had been a ‘demographic time bomb’ and that they need to get women back in the workplace, and they announced they were going to open nurseries in workplaces across the country.” Jeannie explained.

So, the pair managed to tap into this new investment, opening branches of their nursery at places such as Thomas Cook and The University of Oxford to name a few.

And in 1993 after hearing the announcement that well-known campaigner and founder of The Body Shop, Anita Roddick, was launching an in-house nursery at the business’s headquarters, Jeannie hopped straight on a flight to Gatwick to ensure their nursery was chosen for the major million-pound development.

“When we got this contract because it was so in the press at the time, we ended up on breakfast TV and talking to media outlets about the nursery. It was such an exciting time,” Jeannie said.

The Kidsunlimted brand continued to grow until at 56 nurseries the couple decided to ‘let go’ and sell up the chain, feeling as though the corporate side had taken over slightly from the roots of their brand.

In 2011, Stewart began talks with Chris McGoff, part owner of the McGoff Group, about childcare as the construction group were beginning to develop care home sites which they wanted to incorporate nurseries into.

“The McGoff group built the entire development at the Broad heath site in Altrincham. It took a while to get built and we opened in September 2018,” Stewart said.Back To the Garden Nursery is being built at the McGoff Group site in Lymm. (Image: Back To the Garden Nursery)

Jeannie added: “Working with the McGoffs has allowed us to re-visit a lot of what we did in the early stages of Kidsunlimited before it became more corporate, so it is like going back to our roots.

“We have gone even further with Lymm as we are going to have forest schools. The kitchen in Lymm has a vision panel so the children can see into the kitchen and see how the food is being made.

"And we work with a small company who deliver a seasonal veg box, and as that comes in, I like the children to be able to see that and know what organic vegetables look like and that they smell of soil and don’t all come wrapped in plastic,” Jeannie said.

The setting of the nurseries is ‘purpose built’ and there are ‘beautiful light-filled’ settings and an outdoor area, with the focus being on learning in the garden. There ethos stands that there is ‘no such thing as bad weather just bad clothing’ and the children will explore the outside rain or shine.

“It is really back to family basics, and it all starts with the child and nurturing and that is why people love the concept. The name is based on retaining the innocence of a child,” Stewart said.

And as one of the first mutli-generational sites in the north west they will look to integrate activities with the elderly in the care home and the children at the nursery.

Jeannie explained the draw towards the new location of the nursery, saying: “Lymm is a community village, and it will be really nice to be a part of that and to see where we can make links within the community.

"We have had talks about linking in with Lymm Highschool with anyone who wants to study childcare.”

The work on building Back To The Garden in Lymm is set for completion in December, with plans to open the nursery in January. To find out more information visit their website backtothegardenchildcare.com/