A new play opening at Salisbury Playhouse tonight focuses on the stigma of unmarried motherhood in the 60s. But times have changed, as Lesley Bates finds out.

VICKY Cooper is the first to admit that, this time last year, motherhood was the last thing on her mind.

Now she wouldn't be without daughter Ellie, a placid four-month-old with a ready smile and happy gurgle.

She and Ellie share a room in a comfortable house in Bemerton Heath, run by Salisbury district council as part of its Mother and Baby project launched 18 months ago.

The house can accommodate six young women - three bedrooms downstairs for expectant mums and three larger rooms upstairs for when baby is born - with a communal living room and kitchen and two bathrooms.

A support worker visits daily while the council's housing team works to find them alternative permanent accommodation.

Vicky (23) also has the benefit of a supportive family close by.

She arrived at the house when she was six months' pregnant after asking the council for help when she lost the house she'd been sharing with friends.

"I didn't know this place existed and was a bit unsure about moving in with strangers, but once I got to know everyone it was fine," she tells me.

"We've all had the same experiences.

"It helped me a lot before Ellie was born - I didn't intend to have children, had never babysat or looked after children so it was absolutely lovely to feed and help bath the other babies.

"Everybody helps everyone else out.

"If someone is really tired, the others will bath their baby or make them a cup of tea."

The mums pay for their accommodation from their housing benefit and also pay for gas, electricity and council tax.

Housing advisor Freda Fowle and customer support worker Michele Chilcott say they are pleased with the project, believed to be the first of its kind in Wiltshire, and say it fulfils a need.

"We're learning all the time, but it's here to stay - we could keep it full all the time," says Freda.

It's very different from what happens to 19-year-old Mary Adams in Amanda Whittington's bittersweet play Be My Baby, which opens tonight at Salisbury Playhouse.

Bundled off to a mother and baby home in Hull in 1964, Mary and her fellow inmates are cut off from family, shunned by boyfriends and have to cope with the shame of pregnancy and the dawning realisation that their babies will have to be adopted.

"In 1964, there were 200,000 adoptions," Amanda points out.

She spoke to women who went through the experience in the 60s and found that going into a mother and baby home then was evidently a source of shame.

"It was hushed up," she says.

"They were put there secretly or were bundled off by their parents.

"Once there, they wore uniforms and were kept busy cooking, cleaning and working.

"They were also in great ignorance about what was happening to them mentally and physically.

"There was a terrific drive towards adoption as being the only choice."

She feels that the apparent cruelty was not deliberate.

"The villain in a sense is society - it was simply not possible to bring up your child alone and everyone in the play believes they are acting in the best interest of the child."

Be My Baby runs until June 26.