Coordinates: 52°07′32″N 2°18′58″W / 52.12553°N 2.3161°W
| Malvern Link | |
  Malvern Link
 Malvern Link shown within Worcestershire |
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| District | Malvern Hills |
|---|---|
| Shire county | Worcestershire |
| Region | West Midlands |
| Constituent country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | MALVERN |
| Postcode district | WR14 |
| Dialling code | 01684 |
| Police | West Mercia |
| Fire | Hereford and Worcester |
| Ambulance | West Midlands |
| European Parliament | West Midlands |
| UK Parliament | West Worcestershire |
| List of places: UK • England • Worcestershire | |
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.
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Location
The main urban area is to the north of the Worcester Road and the Link Common that mark 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 Howsel and Lower Howsel to the farms and communities of Leigh Sinton in the north and Newland and Madresfield in the west. To the south along the main axis of Pickersliegh Road, an unbroken built up area merges seamlesly into Barnards Green, a suburb of the former independent town of Great Malvern.
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 1100 new houses, industrial units and a school destined for former farm land between Malvern Link and Newland with a further 500 new houses between Malvern Link and Madresfield[1]. 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.
Industry and Commerce
Malvern Link is home to the Morgan Motor Company 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. 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 sauce 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). Malvern Link is served by Malvern Link railway station on the Worcester to Hereford line. A part of Malvern Link , the location of the former Seaford Court School, is the site of a new Malvern hospital for which construction commenced in April 2009.
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, Boots, 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.
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 ..." [2] 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.[3]
Several theories exist on the origin of the 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.[4] 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 [5], or a hill. The word "link" can also mean "Rising ground; a ridge, a bank."[6](compare with "helling" meaning "slope" in Dutch, and in German the more specialised "slipway"[7])
References
- ^ http://www.swjcs.org/PO_CONSULTATION/swjcs_PO.pdf South Worcestershire planning
- ^ Brian S Smith (1964) A History of Malvern, pp 84 - 85, Leicester University Press.
- ^ C. Jane Evans, Laurence Jones and Peter Ellis, (2000). Severn Valley Ware Production at Newland Hopfields: Excavation of a Romano-British kiln site at North End Farm, Great Malvern, Worcestershire in 1992 and 1994. Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit Monograph Series 2
- ^ http://www.information-britain.co.uk/naturaldetail.php?id=2
- ^ http://www.bahs.org.uk/15n2a4.pdf British Agricultural History Society (pdf)
- ^ The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary Sixth Edition (2007)
- ^ Bosworth & Toller (1898). "An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary". http://lexicon.ff.cuni.cz/html/oe_bosworthtoller/b0544.html. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
External links
- The Parish Churches Where they are and what's on
- Vision of Britain
- Malvern Gazette Local Malvern weekly newspaper
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