Maureen East’s final walk this morning to the North Yorkshire village pre-school she founded 29 years ago will be filled with emotion.

With her retirement, Brafferton Playmates Pre-school, which received the North Yorkshire Quality Assurance Gold Award last year, will close.

Mrs East could have been making the same walk through the village of Helperby-Brafferton 12 months ago. But, remarkably, after learning the publicly funded pre-school would close due to financial issues, she offered to run the popular facility for another year on a voluntary basis.

Her fiercely held belief about the value of the pre-school to youngsters and her determination to leave a lasting legacy for the village 12 miles north of York has earned her plaudits.

Malton and Thirsk MP Anne McIntosh said: “I would like to commend the work of Maureen East in filling the gap as efforts were made to keep the pre-school open. I applaud the initiative she has shown.”

In 1981, as Ronald Reagan succeeded Jimmy Carter as US President, mums Maureen East and Grace Moorey were asked by a vicar and the head of St Peter’s Brafferton CofE Primary School to help address a perennial problem: children were struggling at the start of their school careers.

Mrs East said: “Before we started children were going to school cold, some of them found it traumatic.

“We were given an annexe outside the school and the day we started six children came along.

“There were no restrictions or curriculum, no funding and you didn’t have to be qualified.

“We had run a playgroup in Alne for a couple of years and were just a couple of mums trying to make the sessions exciting and fun for the children – that is still at the heart of what we do.”

Word among parents in Helperby-Brafferton and the surrounding villages spread and an increasing number of three and four-year-olds were given a light-hearted and imaginative educational foundation.

Rather than simply reading The Gruffalo, the children – some of whom had rarely visited a woodland – were taken to see where the mouse might live and where the owl might look for food.

And rather than just singing in the classroom the youngsters regularly performed to the older members of the community in the Millennium Hall.

Slowly, but surely, the transition into school life for the children of Helperby-Brafferton and the surrounding villages “became a lot smoother”.

Mrs East said: “We didn’t expect it to go on long. Now Grace and I have taken the children of the children there when we started. It has come full circle.”

Kate McEvoy, head teacher of the village primary school, said: “Every year, the reception children at St Peter’s Brafferton Primary settle so quickly into school. They are always confident, happy and eager to learn – without exception.

“This is thanks to the unstinting dedication and hard work of Maureen East, who has provided an outstanding nursery education over the past 30 years. She will be greatly missed by pupils, staff and parents.”

In addition to Brafferton Playmates, three other pre-schools in North Yorkshire will close their doors for the final time this week.

A decline in family sizes over the past decade, which is hitting rural schools particularly hard due to their initial low intake, has resulted in what the county council says is the principal reason for the closure of three of the pre-schools; “insufficient numbers of children to generate the funding” to pay a member of staff.

Pre-schools are funded through fees paid by parents and contributions from the local education authority.

Ms McIntosh said while Brafferton Playmates is in “an ideal situation because it is attached to a primary school”, she was concerned some pre-schools in her constituency were experiencing difficulty getting the “critical mass” of youngsters needed to attain funding.

She said: “The provision of nursery places in rural areas is particularly challenging.”

As Mrs East points out, despite repeated efforts it has proved impossible to recruit someone prepared to take on a role that has become a much heavier burden – due to mounting regulations – than when she started out.

“I spend so long in my office at home that my husband says he thinks I have left home sometimes. That’s just to keep on top.

“The way things are small playgroups are going to dwindle.”

In order to run a pre-school, you need a Level 3 NVQ, although all these qualifications are under review. A degree will be needed in 2015.

Ms McIntosh said the coalition Government would review the red tape surrounding early years provision, as the Labour Government had created a situation in which it was difficult to recruit staff for pre-schools.

She said: “Changes such as insisting on a graduate for each nursery class and introducing targets including how to hold a pen have exacerbated the situation.”

The local education authority, North Yorkshire County Council, says in each of this summer’s closures “alternative facilities are available to parents within a reasonable distance”. But Mrs East feels this is missing the point: children will no longer have a smooth transition into village primary schools.

The local vicar, the Rev Chris Park, said: “It is a tremendous way to engage young children in the community before they go to school. It will be something very much missed in the community, as the village is a little way away from Boroughbridge and Easingwold. When these things disappear the glue in the community starts to loosen.”

Such is the pre-school’s presence in the community that members of the village’s Monday Club, a group for older residents, have written to the county council urging it to help reinstate a pre-school in Helperby-Brafferton in the near future.

Mrs East said: “I do feel sad that it’s the end of an era and that the pre-school is going to close, but we are going to celebrate what we have achieved with a party for the children.

“Grace (who retired last year, but has continued as the group’s treasurer on a voluntary basis), and I haven’t spoken about what we are going to do to celebrate it yet. I am going to miss the children – we are proud to have touched so many lives, seeing them change from toddlers to confident schoolchildren.

“Somebody somewhere will find something else for me to do. In the meantime, I am fundraising for the church and the NSPCC, and have a Nativity and pantomime trip to organise and will still go into the school.

“Hopefully, next summer I will get to spend a lot more time in my garden.”