Three stores belonging to the Wilko chain in Gloucestershire look likely to have escaped closure.

Within a detailed list of the stores that face shuttering being issued this morning, stores in Cheltenham, Gloucester and Stroud have escaped mention.

In a series of fast-moving developments this week, rival chain B&M revealed it was stepping in to snap up 51 Wilko stores and the move looks likely to now spell an eleventh-hour reprieve for staff at the three stores in the county.

More than 1,300 staff are set be made redundant, with Wilko closing 52 stores in the coming days.

B&M is said to have paid £13m for the acquisition, according to Retail Gazette. On Monday, initial redundancies at Wilko focused on 269 jobs at its support centre in Worksop and 14 more at a subsidiary firm.

Wilko's administrator PwC said it was continuing to work with potential buyers, but the 52 stores set to close "do not form part of any ongoing interest in the Wilko store portfolio".

Just over 1,000 workers are based in the stores set to close, which will close next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (September 12-14). Another 299 staff will be made redundant tomorrow (September 7) at Wilko's distribution centres in Newport and Worksop.

Last week it was confirmed that HMV owner Doug Putman had put together a rescue deal to buy 300 of Wilko's 400 stores, but yesterday it was reported that Gordon Brothers, which is providing financial backing for the deal, was unprepared to finance it.

Putman is still thought to be in the running to buy around 200 Wilko shops.

Wilko went into administration almost a month ago, putting 12,500 jobs at risk. The GMB Union has been supporting workers affected.

Andy Prendergast, GMB national secretary, said: "Every single redundancy is a person who will wake up facing an uncertain future. This needs to be on the forefront of everyone's minds.

"The reality is years of mismanagement have led us here.

"We are still doing everything we can secure a deal that would protect the majority of jobs and stores. But this will be of little comfort for those not knowing how they'll pay their bills."