A concert pianist has raised more than £800 for West Hill Primary School after holding recitals in her own home.

Joyce Clarke, along with her husband Peter, have given more than £6,000 to local charities with the concerts in their music room.

The money this time will go to the school’s ‘Three Peaks Challenge’, as a team of teachers, governors and parents gear up to climb the tallest mountains in England, Scotland in Wales in just 24 hours.

Peter said the musical husband and wife duo decided to hold the recitals for this cause as not only is he a school governor, but because half of the money will go to Children’s Hospice South West, a charity the couple care deeply about.

The other half will go towards helping improve facilities at the school, creating a new ‘Foundation-Stage’ area.

They had 24 guests at each of three separate recitals, with Joyce playing music and Peter, a retired conductor, providing canapés and drinks.

Joyce included works by Mozart, Chopin and Rachmaninov as well as a series of piano miniatures written by her late father, composer Harold Noble.

They have lived in the village for more than a decade, having retired to Devon from the South East, and Peter said the concerts were their way of giving something into the local community.

“As well as raising money it gives us pleasure to do it,” he added.

“Its rather nice to do something without a commercial edge, no negotiations, just raising money for charity.”