A WI group at Eastnor is set to close after 75 years.

Members of Eastnor WI say that without a president and a secretary they can no longer keep things going and they expect the group to fold by the end of the year unless the situation changes dramatically.

Spokesman Mary Wells said it would be a great shame if the group was to disband but unless more volunteers step forward it was inevitable.

"Frankly, the problem is our age," she said. "We're an afternoon group and that means we attract the retired, because women with jobs can't attend, and a lot of our members would not want to go out at night to visit an evening WI."

Mrs Wells said that although Ledbury has other WIs, such as Parkway and Ledbury itself, they are all evening groups and the dissolution of Eastnor WI would leave many of its members with nowhere to go.

She says many members of the 25-strong group had done sterling service in the past on the committee.

But she said: "None of us are getting any younger and it's just getting to be too much of a burden. There's quite a lot of work involved in being president or secretary."

"This is not a surprise for us, we 've been thinking about it for the past year. The county WI has come to give us a pep talk but unless some new members drop out of the blue we'll have to call it a day."

The group was founded in 1926 by Lady Somers of Eastnor Castle and for the first years of its existence met in a hut in the castle grounds.

Later on, it moved to St Katherine's Hall in High Street, Ledbury, and some years ago it moved to its present home in the parish room of the Catholic church in New Street.