LADY Bathurst visited Powell’s School on October 22 to drop off her donation to Little Hearts Matter following this year’s successful conker harvest.

Each year students from Powell’s School visit Cirencester Park and collect conkers in the grounds of the Bathurst Estate.

This year students collected a bumper crop of horse chestnuts, estimated to be the largest collected in the 10 years the school has been collecting.

Handing over a cheque for £200 Lady Bathurst exclaimed: “Golly that’s a lot of conkers!”

She added: “It was an absolute pleasure and it was lovely having them.”

Around 60 children who went on the trip signed a card for the Bathursts saying thank you for the trip which now has pride of place on Lady Bathurst’s notice board.

Head Teacher Teresa Day thanked Lady Bathurst for the day out and the ongoing relationship between the school and the Bathursts.

Andrew Wheatley, whose son Edward received support from Little Hearts Matter before he died, said that the support from the town and Powell’s School had been overwhelming and thanked all those who had helped with their fundraising efforts.

A string of events for the same cause have taken place in Cirencester, with total donations to Andrew and Clare Wheatley’s charity drive now topping £15,000.

Andrew said: “The money will go towards buying books and iPads for sick kids. Towards the end of Edward's life, he couldn't open his eyes or move, but reading stories and listening to the iPad clearly helped him and we want to be able to provide more of these for other kids.

“Being able to read to him towards the end of his life is something we will always be grateful for and we'd like other parents to be able to to do the same.”