A NURSERY that had to close for a week after a York arson attack has reopened.

Muddy Boots is based at the old Manor School site in Boroughbridge Road, but when arsonists broke into the school and set fire to classrooms on the first floor.

While firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze and minimise damage to the building, the nursery suffered heavy water damage and classes had to be held at the nearby Manor CE School.

Andy Nimmo, who runs the nursery with his wife Anna, said they had been overwhelmed by the generosity of the local community.

He said: "We have been working day and night to return the nursery to spick-and-span, and what a week it has been.

"We have been absolutely blown away by the generosity of the community, parents of children at the nursery, local tradesmen, and our own friends and family, who have worked full days and well into the evenings, lifting and shifting, cleaning and painting and decorating to get things to even better than they were before. We estimate that a whopping 500-plus man hours have gone into renovating the nursery this week."

Andy said all corridors and entrances, and every room in the nursery had been deep-cleaned and redecorated, and a brand new pre-school with a covered outdoor play area, kitchenette and baking area had been created.

He said: "Despite only two rooms having actually suffered damage by the fire, we have gone the whole hog.

"I cannot tell you how proud we are of the whole team for all the hard work they have put in over last weekend and this, as well as looking after all the children at Manor School midweek, and how thankful we are to those from the community who have given up precious time out of their busy week to help us restore everything to as-good-as-new."

The nursery wishes to thank its staff and parents and members of the United York Church who volunteered to help, Manor CE Academy, Copmanthorpe OOSC, Rainbows Pre-School, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, local childminders, City of York Council Property Services, and all the specialists and tradesmen who assisted last week.