100 years ago.

The vexed question of efficiency, so far as the Mill Lane Schools are concerned, has now been settled by the carrying through to a successful conclusion of a scheme of alterations and additions in accordance with the Requirements of the Board of Education. The school managers invited the subscribers to view the premises on Thursday last, and a report of the proceedings appears in this issue. The scheme has necessarily been delayed owing to counter-schemes in other directions being in the field. When, however, it became certain that a new Council school was inevitable, the Mill Lane managers, with a clear perception of what they had to do, at once proceeded with their amended scheme, and the result was seen by the visitors on Thursday, in a handsome, commodious, convenient, well-lighted, and well-warmed school, capable of satisfying the somewhat arbitrary demands of the Board of Education and of ensuring the education of the children under the most favourable conditions possible. It is eminently satisfactory to know that although the scheme has cost over £1,000, the bulk of the money has already been raised, and there is only a small deficit. Henceforth, Mill Lane Schools can go on without anxiety, and continue to give that sound religious and secular for which they have been so well known in the past, Malvern Gazette, January 15, 1914.

50 years ago.

Complaints that lamp standards recently erected in Guarlford Road had completely ruined the approach to Malvern and that they resembled a petrified forest were made at a meeting of Malvern Hills Conservators. The Conservators agreed, however, that the standards should remain. "My objection is that we were faced with a fait accompli," said Mr W S Brettell. The Conservators had not been consulted by the Urban Council because of an oversight. "This beautiful approach to the town has been completely ruined. They have not even bothered to consult public opinion in this matter. There is considerable dismay and disquiet in the whole district," he added. Mr W J Marsh disagreed that the approach to Malvern had been spoilt. "There was quite a lot of fuss when we put up standards at the other entrances to the town. If you took a census in Guarlford Road, I very much doubt whether you would get a majority who did not like the standards. I find where you get changes, you always get objections. Some people love to create a fuss because something does not agree with their taste." Mr R W Green thought the standards looked like gibbets. "With all these standards close together, it looks like a petrified forest. It is an act of vandalism."

Malvern Gazette, January 15, 1965.

25 years ago.

Methane gas leaking from a former rubbish tip near Upton-on-Severn poses "no immediate danger" to residents, says the district council. But Tewkesbury Borough Council was this week investigating ways of releasing the gas into the air to disperse it. The tip at Ripple is no longer used for rubbish disposal but it is emitting methane at levels which are giving rise to concern, says Mr Martin Bartram, the council's environmental health and housing officer, although he added that no gas had been found in houses 50 yards away. The leakage was discovered by Gloucestershire County Council last Friday, and since then, all the houses near the tip, as well as land on the edge, have been checked. Mr Bartram said: "There is no immediate danger to people living nearby. No trace of the gas has been found in houses around the tip." He said that although the gas seeps through ground, monitoring carried out by the borough council has not shown seepage at any distance from the tip.

Malvern Gazette, January 19, 1990.