A NUMBER of Valentine cards have been sent to big companies from the romantic Wiltshire village of Lover asking for help to restore the former primary school into a community centre.

The village, south east of Salisbury, used to receive thousands of letters to the now closed post office to be marked with the Lover postmark.

With the purchase of the former school the village hopes to bring back the service along with a Lover Valentine 5k run next year.

There is a £40,000 target to restore the school building.

To help pay for the cost the village have sent out 50 Valentine cards targeting brands and personalities such as heart FM and Virgin. 

The recipients are directed to the donation page, www.gofundme.com/lovervillage

Nick Gibbs, of the Lover Community Trust, said: “This is a very exciting opportunity for Lover and for anyone who believes in loving village life.

"We want to show that villages can boost their mojo again by bringing people together, taking ownership of the challenge and creating a village that works for modern times.

"We are excited to see who will step forward and play a part in this exciting love story."

The settlement, which is in the New Forest National Park, was once called Westminster Green but by 1876 was known as Lover, possibly a corruption of Lower Redlynch.

A former school was built in 1839 and re-built in 1878. It became Redlynch Church of England primary school. After the school closed in 2006, its playing fields were transferred to the Parish council and re-named Lover Green. The green is maintained by the community and is the venue for the annual Lover Country Fayre

In 2015, the community registered the ‘Lover Community Trust’ as a charity to raise funds for the purchase of the school buildings from the church and transform it in to a community centre for the parish. This is a bid to celebrate village life and rescue it from future commercial development.

The Lover post office used to receive thousands of Valentine cards a year for the famous Lover Postmark. The post office closed in 2008 marking the end of the special Valentine service.