Corsham bride-to-be Lucy Hayward is celebrating after a private school came to her rescue to offer a venue for her wedding reception following of the closure of the Methuen Arms Hotel in Corsham.

Miss Hayward, 30, who grew up in Corsham, is to marry her fiance Mark Bailey, 28, in June next year at St Bartholomew’s Church in the town and had planned to hold the reception at the nearby Methuen Arms.

She was worried her guests would have nowhere to go after the sudden closure of the hotel last month.

Now Grittleton House, a private school near Chippenham which is also used for functions, has come to the rescue saying it can host the reception and has offered her a special rate.

Miss Hayward, a former Corsham School pupil who lives in Bristol, said: “I have just been left wondering what I could do as we are on a budget.”

Then Adrian Shipp, one of the partners who own Grittleton House, called her. She said: “I feel like a big weight has been lifted off my mind now.”

Miss Hayward fears she has lost the £200 deposit she paid to the Methuen Arms and thought she would have to forfeit a honeymoon.

However her parents Lil and Malcolm Hayward, of Woodborough Road, Corsham are stepping in to help.

A spokesman for Enterprise Inns, which owns the pub, said: “While we have every sympathy with anyone who has paid a deposit to the former licensee, their contract is with that licensee and therefore they should pursue that person for any monies owed.”

Grittleton House owner Mr Shipp said: “I have helped them out because it was a very difficult thing for them to deal with and they were stuck.”

This week restaurateur Martin Still, former licensee of the Pear Tree Inn at Whitley, said he was in talks with Enterprise about taking over the hotel.