WORCESTER has topped the chart this year as the Valentine's card capital of the UK.

Research from Royal Mail has revealed that 53 per cent of the city's inhabitants are set to send cards this year.

The city emerges as a lone island of love in the south of the UK, with the three closest runners-up - Leeds, York and Glasgow - all situated firmly in the north.

The amorous giving isn't restricted to couples, either: 16 per cent will surrender to nostalgia and send a card to themselves, with 18 per cent of parents sending a card to their children and 1 per cent posting greetings to their pets.

It seems the nation is more than ready to splash the cash on Valentine’s Day too.

With the average spend totalling £22, 3 per cent are planning to spend over £100 - and an ultra-doting 1 per cent will shell out over £250 on their paramour.

With the big day fast approaching, we took to Worcester’s streets, in the hope of meeting the country’s most loved-up, and to discover exactly where all that mushy moolah is being spent.

Mike and Linda Smith described their ideal Valentine’s day as a relaxing evening in, for just the two of them. Linda said: “The Waitrose meal deal for two is the one for me, meaning no work for me to do either”.

Geoff and Joan Eales, who have been married for 43 years, continued the supermarket meal deal trend.

Optimistically, Joan added, “a Valentine’s week for me, with no work either.”

Brummies Meghan and Rebecca, both nursing students in Worcester, agreed with the Valentine’s feast idea.

Meghan’s ideal is “to get dressed up nice, go somewhere posh...and not have to pay the bill”.

Rebecca, perhaps shrewdly avoiding the food bill tussle altogether, would instead choose “to come home, with a Chinese and a lovely film.”

'If music be the food of love, play on' - so goes the famous line. Not so, it seems, in Worcester this year, where the trend is to feed love with food.

A final curveball, and food for thought for anyone looking to venture away from the traditional romantic meal for two.

“For Valentine’s day”, said Mike Rollins of Evesham, “I’m going bowling”.