Malvern Link
Encyclopedia
Malvern Link is an area of Malvern
, Worcestershire
, England
to the north and east of Great Malvern
. The centres of Malvern Link and Great Malvern are separated by Malvern Link Common, an area of open land that is statutorily protected by the Malvern Hills Conservators
. In 1900 Malvern Link Urban District, which had been formed only five years earlier, merged with Great Malvern to become Malvern Town.
in the north and Newland
and Madresfield
in the west. To the south along the main axis of Pickersleigh Road, an unbroken built up area merges seamlesly into Barnards Green
, a suburb of the former independent town of Great Malvern.
Malvern Link was the key site of the Romano-British pottery industry that produced Severn Valley Ware. There are several kilns in the Malvern Link-Newland area and numerous water-filled clay pits, now lined with trees.
Several theories exist on the origin of the name "Malvern Link" . It may have got its name because the Victorians used to link up more horses to the carriages so that they could be pulled up the hill on the A449, which runs through the centre of Malvern Link to the small urban centre of Link Top at its western end before arriving in the town centre of Great Malvern. At the point where the A449 road
passes through Malvern Link it is called Worcester Road, as it leads directly into the centre of the city of Worcester about eight miles to the east.
However, "Malvern Link" may also refer to a ridge in the slope of the Malvern Hills on which it is situated, from the Middle English "hlinc" meaning a ridge of land, or a hill. The word "link" can also mean "Rising ground; a ridge, a bank."(compare with "helling" meaning "slope" in Dutch, and in German the more specialised "slipway")
in 1584 describes "a great Stone in a Tufte of bushes" at Link Top
which was recorded on a Stuart map as the "Whore Stone" (meaning hoar
or ancient stone).
In 1744 the Link Stone was located at the beginning of Pickersleigh road. It has since been relocated to the St Matthias churchyard.
An inscription on a plaque near the stone reads:-
Further development is planned for the second decade of the 21st century with approximately 700 new houses, 10 hectares of employment land, a primary school and community centre destined for former farm land between Malvern Link and Newland
. This will effectively merge the two villages into the urban sprawl of Malvern Link, creating new neighbourhoods that have yet to be named. Construction began in early 2009 on a new hospital for Malvern on the site of Seaford Court, a former private prep school
in Malvern Link, close to the station.
during the mid 19th century. In 1942 the population swelled again when the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) relocated to Malvern to occupy a site at Barnards Green
, and a further site of the RAF Radio Training School on the location of the former Pale Manor Farm in Leigh Sinton Road in Malvern Link, that came to be known as RRE North Site.
. The ward Includes all of Malvern Link from Link Top in the west to the Newland roundabout in the east except a small part of the Malvern Link area in the west that is allocated to Dyson Perrins ward. The area of Malvern Link also includes part of the Pickersleigh ward to the south and also includes the former settlements of Upper Howsell and Lower Howsell.
a manufacturer of luxury sports roadsters, and Chance Brothers
, the remaining factory of what was once the largest manufacturer of glassware in the United Kingdom.
The main shopping area of Malvern Link stretches along the Worcester Road in from the junction of Spring Lane to the junction of Pickersleigh Road at the Malvern Link railway station. It contains all the retail outlets common to a small town including pharmacies, furniture and dry goods stores, supermarkets, hardware stores, gardening centres, banks, betting shops, groceries, butchers, and cafés and fast-food, and a former cinema that is now a furniture warehouse. A mural on the Pickersleigh Road wall of the Victoria pharmacy depicts many of Malvern's landmarks, including the hills, Edward Elgar
and Link Stone, which now resides in the churchyard of nearby St Matthias Church. It also contains the so-called 'Malvern Psalm'.
A retail park (the Malvern Hills Retail Park) has been in constant development of Malvern Link since the mid 1990s, with stores that include the branches of national chains such as Morrisons
, Marks and Spencer, Matalan
, Next and Halfords
. The retail park is an extension of the Spring Lane trading estate, a commercial park of small modern factories, warehouses and service providers, that began its development in the early 1960s.
that is sold worldwide. The area also has several primary schools (such as Somers Park Primary School and St. Matthias C of E Primary School). The location of the former boys boarding school Seaford Court, is the site of a new Malvern hospital for which construction commenced in April 2009 and is scheduled for completion in August 2010.
, composer. On returning from London to settle in the Malverns, in 1891 Elgar and his wife leased a semi-detached house at 37 Alexandra Road, Malvern Link, which they named 'Forli'.
They lived in the house until 1898, when the Elgars moved to Storridge
. It was during the 'Forli' years that Elgar composed many of his works, including, among others, The Black Knight (1892), Sursm Corda (1894), and in 1898 the Variations on an Original Theme that gained him his international reputation.
Malvern, Worcestershire
Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, governed by Malvern Town Council. As of the 2001 census it has a population of 28,749, and includes the historical settlement and commercial centre of Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, and the former...
, Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
to the north and east of Great Malvern
Great Malvern
Great Malvern is an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is the historical centre of the town, and the location of the headquarters buildings of the of Malvern Town Council, the governing body of the Malvern civil parish, and Malvern Hills District council of the county of...
. The centres of Malvern Link and Great Malvern are separated by Malvern Link Common, an area of open land that is statutorily protected by the Malvern Hills Conservators
Malvern Hills Conservators
The Malvern Hills Conservators are a body corporate responsible for the care and management of the Malvern Hills and Commons. They were established in 1884 and are governed by five Acts of Parliament, the Malvern Hills Acts 1884, 1909, 1924, 1930 and 1995. They became a registered charity in...
. In 1900 Malvern Link Urban District, which had been formed only five years earlier, merged with Great Malvern to become Malvern Town.
Location
The main urban area is to the north of the Worcester Road and the Link Common that marks a sharply defined boundary on the south of the settlement between the railway station and the area's western limit at Newtown Road in Link Top. The urban development takes a gentle transition through the neighbourhoods of Upper Howsell and Lower Howsell to the farms and communities of Leigh SintonLeigh Sinton
Leigh Sinton is a hamlet in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire, England, and one of the constituent places of the civil parish of Leigh and Bransford. The parish lies on the A4103 Worcester to Hereford road, about 5 miles out of Worcester, whilst Malvern is also about 5...
in the north and Newland
Newland, Worcestershire
Newland is a village and civil parish on the north-eastern edge of Malvern Link, Worcestershire, England, on the A449 road. A church, the St Leonard Chapelry, in Newland is associated with the Beauchamp Community of retired Church of England priests....
and Madresfield
Madresfield
Madresfield is a village and civil parish in the administrative district of Malvern Hills in the county of Worcestershire, England. It is located about two miles east of Malvern town centre at the foot of the Malvern Hills and is less than two miles from the River Severn...
in the west. To the south along the main axis of Pickersleigh Road, an unbroken built up area merges seamlesly into Barnards Green
Barnards Green
Barnard's Green is one of the main population areas of Malvern, Worcestershire, England, situated approximately downhill from Great Malvern, the town's traditional centre...
, a suburb of the former independent town of Great Malvern.
History
The name Malvern Link seems to have been in use for some time: "The many local placenames ... which first appear in thirteenth century records were probably current a full century earlier. ... By 1276 ... there was, therefore, a probable population of at least 200 scattered in the old hamlets of Baldenhall, Guarlford, Poolbrook and the Link ..."Malvern Link was the key site of the Romano-British pottery industry that produced Severn Valley Ware. There are several kilns in the Malvern Link-Newland area and numerous water-filled clay pits, now lined with trees.
Several theories exist on the origin of the name "Malvern Link" . It may have got its name because the Victorians used to link up more horses to the carriages so that they could be pulled up the hill on the A449, which runs through the centre of Malvern Link to the small urban centre of Link Top at its western end before arriving in the town centre of Great Malvern. At the point where the A449 road
A449 road
The A449 is a major road in the United Kingdom. It runs north from junction 24 of the M4 motorway at Newport in South Wales to Stafford in Staffordshire....
passes through Malvern Link it is called Worcester Road, as it leads directly into the centre of the city of Worcester about eight miles to the east.
However, "Malvern Link" may also refer to a ridge in the slope of the Malvern Hills on which it is situated, from the Middle English "hlinc" meaning a ridge of land, or a hill. The word "link" can also mean "Rising ground; a ridge, a bank."(compare with "helling" meaning "slope" in Dutch, and in German the more specialised "slipway")
The Link Stone
A perambulation of the boundaries of the Malvern ChaseMalvern Chase
Malvern Chase occupied the land between the Malvern Hills and the River Severn in Worcestershire and extended to Herefordshire from the River Teme to Cors Forest....
in 1584 describes "a great Stone in a Tufte of bushes" at Link Top
Link Top
Link Top is a locality of Malvern Link, a major population area of the town of Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is situated at the western extremity of Malvern Link at its boundary with Great Malvern and North Malvern...
which was recorded on a Stuart map as the "Whore Stone" (meaning hoar
Hoary
Hoary may refer to:*Hoary, white or grey with age*Hoary bat, a "hairy-tailed bat" in the family of vesper bats...
or ancient stone).
In 1744 the Link Stone was located at the beginning of Pickersleigh road. It has since been relocated to the St Matthias churchyard.
An inscription on a plaque near the stone reads:-
This stone originally marked the boundary between the Manors of Leigh and Powick. It was already old in 1584 when a breathless Elizabethan gentleman noted it during "beating the bounds". In the Stuart period it was marked on an estate map as the "Old Stone". The central recess is a receptacle for coins perpetuating the very old custom of receiving payment for the right of passage through the parish. This custom was acknowledged by mourners, who would rest a coffin on the Link Stone on it's way top Leigh from the Pickersleigh side of the Link, a practice probably not discontinued until 1846 when St Matthias was consecrated.
Development
Malvern Link is the location of the majority of Malvern's council and private housing estates, and retail parks and factory centres that have emerged since the 1950s. The expansion in the second half of the 19th century began essentially as ribbon development along the Worcester Road, the eastern approach to Malvern, at the same time as Malvern's rise to popularity as a Spa Town. When the railway arrived in the mid 19th century, the settlement had reached sufficient dimensions to justify its own fully featured station although the Great Malvern station is only about mile further down the line. Large villas and small hotels were constructed along the entire length of the northern side of the Worcester Road, from the railway station to Link Top affording them an unhindered view over the Malvern Common and many of them were converted to boarding schools following the decline of the spa industry, and major middle class residential areas developed northwards during the inter-war years of the 1920s and 1930s.Further development is planned for the second decade of the 21st century with approximately 700 new houses, 10 hectares of employment land, a primary school and community centre destined for former farm land between Malvern Link and Newland
Newland, Worcestershire
Newland is a village and civil parish on the north-eastern edge of Malvern Link, Worcestershire, England, on the A449 road. A church, the St Leonard Chapelry, in Newland is associated with the Beauchamp Community of retired Church of England priests....
. This will effectively merge the two villages into the urban sprawl of Malvern Link, creating new neighbourhoods that have yet to be named. Construction began in early 2009 on a new hospital for Malvern on the site of Seaford Court, a former private prep school
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
in Malvern Link, close to the station.
Population
As with the rest of Malvern, the Link owes much of its development to the area's rapid expansion from a cluster of hamlets and manors to a busy spa townSpa town
A spa town is a town situated around a mineral spa . Patrons resorted to spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. The word comes from the Belgian town Spa. In continental Europe a spa was known as a ville d'eau...
during the mid 19th century. In 1942 the population swelled again when the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) relocated to Malvern to occupy a site at Barnards Green
Barnards Green
Barnard's Green is one of the main population areas of Malvern, Worcestershire, England, situated approximately downhill from Great Malvern, the town's traditional centre...
, and a further site of the RAF Radio Training School on the location of the former Pale Manor Farm in Leigh Sinton Road in Malvern Link, that came to be known as RRE North Site.
Governance
Malvern Link constitutes the major part of the Link ward of the civil parish governed by Malvern Town Council.. The ward Includes all of Malvern Link from Link Top in the west to the Newland roundabout in the east except a small part of the Malvern Link area in the west that is allocated to Dyson Perrins ward. The area of Malvern Link also includes part of the Pickersleigh ward to the south and also includes the former settlements of Upper Howsell and Lower Howsell.
Industry and Commerce
Malvern Link is home to the Morgan Motor CompanyMorgan Motor Company
The Morgan Motor Company is a British motor car manufacturer. The company was founded in 1910 by Harry Frederick Stanley Morgan, generally known as "HFS" and was run by him until he died, aged 77, in 1959. Peter Morgan, son of H.F.S., ran the company until a few years before his death in 2003...
a manufacturer of luxury sports roadsters, and Chance Brothers
Chance Brothers
Chance Brothers and Company was a glassworks originally based in Spon Lane, Smethwick, West Midlands , in England. It was a leading glass manufacturer and a pioneer of British glassmaking technology....
, the remaining factory of what was once the largest manufacturer of glassware in the United Kingdom.
The main shopping area of Malvern Link stretches along the Worcester Road in from the junction of Spring Lane to the junction of Pickersleigh Road at the Malvern Link railway station. It contains all the retail outlets common to a small town including pharmacies, furniture and dry goods stores, supermarkets, hardware stores, gardening centres, banks, betting shops, groceries, butchers, and cafés and fast-food, and a former cinema that is now a furniture warehouse. A mural on the Pickersleigh Road wall of the Victoria pharmacy depicts many of Malvern's landmarks, including the hills, Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
and Link Stone, which now resides in the churchyard of nearby St Matthias Church. It also contains the so-called 'Malvern Psalm'.
A retail park (the Malvern Hills Retail Park) has been in constant development of Malvern Link since the mid 1990s, with stores that include the branches of national chains such as Morrisons
Morrisons
Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc is the fourth largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, headquartered in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The company is usually referred to and is branded as Morrisons formerly Morrison's, and it is part of the FTSE 100 Index of companies...
, Marks and Spencer, Matalan
Matalan
Matalan is a British retailer that specialises in shoes and clothes. It was founded by John Hargreaves in 1985. It currently has 200 stores across the UK. The 200th store opened on 22 September 2006 in Croydon...
, Next and Halfords
Halfords
Halfords Group plc is a leading retailer of car parts, car enhancements and bicycles operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, the Czech Republic and more recently in Poland, although it is currently pulling out of the latter two countries...
. The retail park is an extension of the Spring Lane trading estate, a commercial park of small modern factories, warehouses and service providers, that began its development in the early 1960s.
Education
One of Malvern's two secondary schools, Dyson Perrins CE Sports College, is located in Malvern Link. The school was endowed by and is named after Charles William Dyson Perrins, grandson of the co-founder of Lea and Perrins, the manufacturer of the local product Worcestershire sauceWorcestershire sauce
Worcestershire sauce , or Worcester sauce is a fermented liquid condiment; primarily used to flavour meat or fish dishes.First made at 60 Broad Street, Worcester, England, by two dispensing chemists, John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins, the Lea & Perrins brand was commercialised in 1837 and...
that is sold worldwide. The area also has several primary schools (such as Somers Park Primary School and St. Matthias C of E Primary School). The location of the former boys boarding school Seaford Court, is the site of a new Malvern hospital for which construction commenced in April 2009 and is scheduled for completion in August 2010.
Notable residents
Edward ElgarEdward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
, composer. On returning from London to settle in the Malverns, in 1891 Elgar and his wife leased a semi-detached house at 37 Alexandra Road, Malvern Link, which they named 'Forli'.
They lived in the house until 1898, when the Elgars moved to Storridge
Cradley, Herefordshire
Cradley is the largest village in Herefordshire, England . The nearest towns are Ledbury, 14 km to the south, and Bromyard, 15 km to the north west, in Herefordshire and Malvern, Worcestershire, 7 km to the south east on the other side of the Malvern Hills.Cradley has a village shop/...
. It was during the 'Forli' years that Elgar composed many of his works, including, among others, The Black Knight (1892), Sursm Corda (1894), and in 1898 the Variations on an Original Theme that gained him his international reputation.
External links
- The Parish Churches Where they are and what's on
- Vision of Britain
- Malvern Gazette Local Malvern weekly newspaper