A MERGER has been announced between two educational groups.

The Tiptree and Tollesbury branches of the WEA will now be part of the same group.

The Tiptree branch has been running for more than 20 years, while Tollesbury is celebrating its 70th anniversary after being founded 1949.

The groups offer the chance for people who are retired or out of work to learn new skills or about subjects such as history, economics, philosophy and even hosting craft workshops.

A spokesman said: “This is a unique opportunity for the two branches to combine forces to bring a more comprehensive programme of learning opportunities in a wide variety of subjects.

"We are proud of our achievements and hope you will look out for our 2019 to 2020 programme in the coming months with a course on garden structures and the history of ideas in September.”