An elderly woman in an East Sussex village has donated a large plot of land so a new primary school can be built.

Campaigners in Wivelsfield are celebrating the donation as they have been fighting for new premises to replace the existing Victorian primary school and mobile classrooms.

Joan Penfold, 87, who lived in the village for many years, and two of her relatives have given the three-acre site known as Abbotsleigh, off North Common Road, to the school.

They had heard how the school and its 118 pupils had outgrown its existing site in Church Lane where they have been learning in cramped conditions.

Urgent meeting

Marion Whear, chair of the school governors, said: "This is wonderful news and the biggest development in our campaign for a new school in more than 30 years.

"The Abbotsleigh site is in a good position in the village.

"We will be seeking an urgent meeting with senior officers in the county education department to discuss building the new school."

The task remains to find the cash for the new building, which is expected to cost up to �2m.

The school governors are hopeful they will be eligible to get funds from the government's New Deals for Schools Modernisation scheme.

Also money could be used from the sale of the existing buildings.