Richmond Pre-school CIC

Richmond Pre-school has been serving the community here in South Benfleet for over 50 years, providing childcare for children between 2 and 5 years of age.
In 1965, Joan Price opened a pre-school in the former Catholic Church hall, which is now a complex of apartments next to a flower shop in Belgravia.
Richmond Hall was rebuilt in 1987 and became our new home, where we stayed happily until September 1993 when we rented the demountable at the front of South Benfleet Primary School.
The building, which was constructed in the middle of the 1960s, was getting older, and a 2009 safety inspection found significant issues.
We submitted a combined application for a capital build grant with the school.
After much form filling, we were successful, being granted 750k for the new building in July 2010.
Staff members observed the demolition of the old building from the cafe across the street one Saturday morning.
When the new structure was inaugurated in January 2011 by Eileen French, chair of the South Benfleet Primary School board of governors, we relocated and resided there.
Our preschool turned 50 years old in 2015.