Daily Herald Photograph: Platignum Pen Factory nursery

..FOR WORKING WIVES' CHILDREN by ROBERT BICKFORD TEN minutes before clocking-on time... and up the road to the factory gate parade the children. Boys clutching teddy bears. Girls with their favourite dolls. All on their way to work with their mothers. At the gate they part with a hug and a kiss. The mothers go to their work benches, the children to a brand new £15,000 nursery. It's one firm's answer to the big problem of Britain's workaday mothers - what to do with the children while they earn that extra money to meet the mortgage or hire-purchase commitments. THE COST The nursery has been built into the Platignum pen factory at Stevenage New Town, Hertfordshire. It is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day and cares for 37 children aged two to five. The children are washed, fed and watched over by a trained staff of six, headed by a state-registered nurse Monica Bulman. Everything is there to keep them happy. Swings, slides, toys, boxes of paints, modelling clay, miniature cloakrooms, even dormitories for the afternoon nap - all provided by the firm. The service - and the peace of mind of knowing their children are safe and happy - costs the mothers 25s. a week. "It is marvellous," said one, 25-year-old secretary Mrs. Audrey Clare. "My son Nicholas loves every minute of it. "I know some people say young mothers shouldn't go to work, but we've just got to. Most of us on my estate are starting up new homes." Another mother, wages clerk Mrs. Jean Buckthorpe said: "It's a wonderful idea. I couldn't go out to work without it. I know I don't have to worry about my daughter Janet. She's well looked after." NO WORRIES The nursery, up to 15s-a-week cheaper than others in the town, is heavily subsidised by the firm. But, said personnel manager Mr. Jim Moir: "It's the best thing from our point of view, as well as the mothers. They work better when they're not worried." CHRIS BARHAM DH 16.8.1961 BABES AT WORK. (Story Bickford) Working mothers at Platignum Pen Factory, Stevenage, take their children with them. They are looked after by special nursing staff in a £15,000 creche at the factory. OPS Mothers and children arriving at the factory this morning. Hertfordshire - Stevenage - Babies - Nurseries.