VILLAGERS in Willersey are set to benefit from the largest single bequest ever given to the parish council - but they have had to wait more than 27 years to receive it.

Miss Nancy Hewins, a long-time resident of the village until her death aged 76 in 1978, left a third of her estate to Willersey Parish Council "for distribution and use as it thinks fit for the benefit of deserving organisations in the parish".

Due to delays caused by the sale of Miss Hewins' property, her estate has only recently been settled.

And last week her executors, nephew Patrick Hewins, Susan Date, a former member of her touring theatrical company, and solicitor Tony Newell, met at Miss Hewins' graveside in St Peter's churchyard to present a cheque for more than £120,000 to parish council chairman Maurice Andrews.

"It is by far the largest single bequest we have ever received," said Cllr Andrews.

"It will be for some major project that will benefit the entire village."

He said that the money would be kept separately from money raised from the parish precept and that the 12 village organisations, ranging from the Women's Institute to the youth club, would be consulted on how best to spend it.

"What we will probably do is get a representative from each organisation to find out what they would like but at the end of the day the parish council will decide," said Cllr Andrews, who knew Miss Hewins personally, described her as "a bit eccentric".

"She was generous and forthright in her views. She knew what she wanted and she usually got it," he said.

Miss Hewins, who lived at The Long House in Willersey, had strong family connections to the village going back centuries.

These included W.A.S. Hewins MP, who was at one time a junior government minister during the 1914-18 War and whose father once lived in the Manor House, Willersey.

Miss Hewins, a graduate of St Hugh's College, Oxford in 1924, formed The Osiris Players, a theatre company that toured, England, Wales and Ireland performing Shakespearian and other plays in village halls, schools and barns from the late 1930s until around 1970.

The company toured in two cream and white Roll-Royces, familiar sights in Willersey, which conveyed actors and props. During the war years they used a horse and dray.

The parish has benefited from the massive increase in property prices in the years since Miss Hewins wrote her will.

"She was probably thinking in terms of hundreds rather than thousands," admitted Cllr Andrews.