Subject: Widow leaves her village £400,000

A village has been left £400,000 by a 90-year-old widow as a thank you for the warm welcome she received when she retired.

Margaret Allan moved to Solva in Pembrokeshire 30 years ago with husband Harry after leaving the Foreign Office.

Mr Allan died in 1990 but villagers helped his widow rebuild her life and cared for her in her final years, reports the BBC.

In return, she has shared her estate among scores of individuals, groups and societies in the village as well as taking care of her ginger cat, Brutus.

Mrs Allan and her late husband used to holiday in the waterfront village, in St Bride's Bay, before retiring there.

When her husband died, it was the friends she had made that helped her through.

Mrs Allan is leaving up to £10,000 to more than a dozen of her close friends and carers.

She is also giving something to everyone over the age of 60 who has lived in the village for more than 20 years. Around 120 people are expected to receive about £500 each.

Her will even takes care of her companion in her final years, her ginger tom, Brutus.

It states: "To any person whom the executors agree to taking care of my cat to avoid it being put down or going into a cattery - the sum of £3,000."

Brutus has gone to live with Mrs Allan's neighbours Dave and Viv Phillips.

Retired BT engineer Mr Phillips, 56, said: "Margaret was a remarkable woman who was friends with everybody in the village.

"She was housebound for a while before she died but she was still so interested in the affairs of the village and the people here."

Mrs Phillips, 53, said: "Because they had no children they regarded the village as her family."

Mrs Allan left instructions that her ashes should be scattered in the rose bushes at the garden of her home at Anchor Down, Solva, as her husband's were 17 years earlier.