A PENSIONER has vowed to fight "to the bitter end" to stay in a house church landlords have told her she must leave.

Margaret Harley, 67, of School House, Arley, has been given until noon on Thursday to vacate the home she has lived in for 14 years.

A judge made the order a month ago at the end of a county court case brought for repossession by the Worcester Diocesan Board.

The board argued the school house was needed for the use of Arley C of E First School which had greatly expanded to 50 pupils and had become desperately short of space in the period since Mrs Harley first took the short term tenancy.

She was given notice her tenancy would expire many months ago, a board spokesman said. The duty of the diocese under the trust was to give priority to the needs of education.

But difficulties arose when Mrs Harley, who has held an Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement from the start, refused to move.

She was taken to court on September 11 and the court ruled the diocese had acted correctly. She was refused leave to appeal.

Mrs Harley who believes the decision has been wrongly taken and has challenged the right of the church to act as her landlord said: "I am pursuing this to the bitter end and am fighting it because I think it is wrong."

Diocesan director of education the Rev David Morphy said: "We are desperately sorry it has come to this.

"It is not what the Church of England would have wanted to do.

"We have offered to help her find another house and also to reimburse her court costs of £4,000 but she will not accept this or our explanation of the position."

He said the diocese originally agreed to the house being tenanted when the Victorian idea that teachers should live on the school premises became outdated.

A 1997 Ofsted report had highlighted the school's need for more space for school activities and the position had become more acute with the growth of the school since.