A LITTLE piece of Malvern's history left the town recently when Joyce Lewis left her home in Steamer Point to move to Lancashire.

Mrs Lewis is notable because she, her mother and brother were the first family in the area to become Jehovah's Wit-nesses.

Mrs Lewis, who was born Joyce Ellen Jones in 1920 at Hanley Castle, said her interest was aroused "as the Witnesses were able to answer from the Bible what the local clergy could not, namely, where are the dead".

The family were convinced by the answers and made the decision to associate with the Witnesses.

She said: "It is true to say that our little family shook Hanley Castle when my mother came out of the Church of England, which took a lot of faith, being a widow with a serious heart problem.

"Some financial charity support was withdrawn, but we seemed to always have the necessities somehow."

Mrs Lewis became a baptised Witness in 1936, and Lionel, her brother, in 1938.

The little group of Witnesses, which originally met in a flat on Victoria Road, grew to 21 by 1951, and to about 40 by 1967.

Her son Michael was baptised into the Wit-nesses in 1963 and in 1969 became a full-time minister or pioneer, serving until the death of his father in 1971.

"I am moving because ill-health and being permanently disabled means I require looking after, and the home I am going to is run by Witness people, so I will be well cared for by my spiritual family," she said.

Michael Lewis said: "She and her mother might have been the first, but they will not be the last."