IT WAS an emotional farewell as The Willows Nursery School closed its doors for good.

The nursery school closed its doors for the last time on July 14, almost a year after being evicted from the building it had been occupying in Liphook.

As previously reported in the Post, The Willows had been turned out of the building it had been using on Liphook Recreation Ground last summer.

A solution was found when the management committee of the Liphook Millennium Centre (LMC), allowed The Willows to use the centre until this July.

However, the management committee was not prepared to let The Willows stay beyond then.

Staff at The Willows tried to find a new permanent home for the nursery school, but they were unsuccessful and made the difficult decision to close for good.

Jackie Finlayson, Jan Bowley and Jill Cooke had been running the nursery school since 2001, and they held a farewell party to mark the end of an era.

Jackie said: “We held a little party for the parents and the children to say goodbye.

“It was very sad as we have been running The Willows for 15 years. In that time we have probably had about 600 children through the school.

“We still kept in touch with some of the children as they would come in and say hello when they were at Bohunt School.

“One of our girls is now part of the Great Britain gymnastics team and is winning medals, which is fantastic.

“I would like to thank all of the parents for the tremendous support they have given us over the years.

“They have been wonderful and have helped us so much over the years.

“I would also like to thank Jan and Jill for all of their work.”

Jill has now retired, but Jackie and Jan hope to continue working as registered childminders.

“We now look forward to the future,” said Jackie.

“Jan and I are waiting for Ofsted approval, and we want to start as soon as we are registered, which will hopefully be by the start of September.”