Church memorial for landlady Floss

One of the UK's oldest landladies will have a lasting memorial to her installed at a tiny village church close to the south Shropshire border.

Landlady Flossie Lane is to have a tribute placed in Leintwardine Parish Church - a carved misericord, funded by proceeds from the village's beer festival which took place yesterday.

Miss Lane died in June, aged 94. She was known throughout Leintwardine as the proprietor of the Sun Inn - her home and the pub she ran for 74 years.

Reputedly the oldest publican in the country, Flossie was a regular sight in her armchair in the pub and in her later years even had villagers helping run the pub for her, with punters paying for their drinks by putting coins into a row of jam jars.

And yesterday the Leintwardine Beer Festival was held in the garden at the Sun Inn. Part of the proceeds will go towards a misericord for Flossie in St Mary Magdalene Church.

Lean

Misericords are carved ledges underneath folding seats in churches, designed to give those standing something to lean against during long periods of prayer.

This was the Sun Inn's fourth annual beer festival. Among the ales served was a special beer from Hobson's Brewery named "Old Flossie" in her honour.

"Previously money raised has gone towards paying for the care workers Flossie needed in recent years. This year we are going to use the money to pay for the misericord," said one of the organisers Gary Seymour.

"The choir stalls in St Mary Magdalene, Leintwardine, were rescued by the villagers hours before King Henry VIII's commissioners got to the then Wigmore Abbey to destroy it.

"There are 12 choir seats and five original misericords, one of national importance. Seven are blank and uncarved.

"It has been agreed in principle by the Bishop of Hereford that a local carver Andrew Pearson, an artist of international reputation, can carve these blank misericords subject to church approval of the design.

"It has also been agreed that the first should be of a person of local influence and fire and not merely rich.

"And Floss was unanimously approved."

The fate of the Sun Inn remains undecided. An auction to sell it was postponed this month after an offer was made by a local consortium.

By Hannah Costigan