STOP PRESS!

Changes in the Committee

The committee of the Malvern Spa Association is saddened by the resignation of the Chair, Rose Garrard, from our team. Rose was a very active member of the Malvern Spa Association Heritage Lottery Fund team and the driving force in getting all the design plans vetted. She ensured that no detail, however small, was overlooked.

Her ability as an artist and sculptor, as well as her encyclopedic knowledge of the water history of Malvern, has been a great asset.

Rose's work on the Clocktower gates, from concept through design to installation, will remain, for years to come, a monument to her artistic ability.

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Malverns Heritage Project Update

The restoration of the Malvern's springs and wells is gathering pace. The project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and hopes to restore many of the most familiar water features around the hills.

North Malvern Clock Tower

This long running project is now drawing to a close with the fitting of the magnificent gates designed by Rose Garrard and constructed by artist blacksmith Andrew Findlay. The top photograph (photo: John H) shows Rose, Andrew and David Armitage of the Malverns Heritage Project, sizing up the new gates last Tuesday (18th Sept 2007).

The new gates will be opened each day to allow entry to the well room where new pipe work and a basin has been installed. The water to this well room has always been unreliable, hence the large tanks at the back. These tanks are now no longer water tight, so the new pipe work runs to the well head, up the hill; the supply will remain, as it always has been, intermittent.

The Malvern Hills Conservators have kindly cleared the shrubberies away from the front of the tower and this provided the unexpected pleasure of being able to restore the buttress walls either side of the tower. Behind the walls is the 50,000 gallons tank, now redundant. On the front of the walls is the polychrome banding that has been repaired. This was considerably held up by the summer rain that ate away at the wet cement.

The clock itself has been restored, electric lighting has now replaced the redundant gas lighting and the roof is now water tight.

Lower Wyche Spout - Malvern Wells

The third photograph shows Victoria Oaten, the project supervisor and Guy Sterry, the contractor, tracing the pipe work back to the sump at Lower Wyche spout.

This spout, like the Clock Tower, was the gift of Charles Morris in the early C19. Like the Clock Tower, it too has a tank behind it but this time the tank was watertight, but the metal inlet pipe had furred up. To replace it, it had to be traced back to the brick sump and a plastic pipe substituted. The water now flows generously from the spout.

The old drinking trough at the roadside is now full of clear water which is also issuing from the brick sump. Having cleared back the vegetation whose roots were prising the mortar from the spout face, all that remains to be done is to have the dedication plaque re-incised.

Jubilee Spout - Malvern Wells

This ornate fountain at the junction of Green Lane and the main road has had spring water kindly supplied to it by Severn Trent. The tap will be reconnected and water will flow once the intricate stonework has been stabilised. The shrub behind the spout has been trimmed so that it appears like the earliest photograph that exists of the spout.

Beauchamp Spout

This spout is not formally on the list for renovation yet, because in order to restore it, it has to be shown that every effort has been made to find an owner. Despite articles in newspapers and notices at the spout, all that has come to light is that some properties have a right to the water, one it seems as a gift of Earl Beauchamp for wartime bravery. We now hope to be able to restore it.