Robert and I usually take a few days respite from London life and here we are in the Malvern Hills.
The Malvern Hills are a range of hills in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern. The highest summit of the hills affords a panorama of the Severn valley with the hills of Herefordshire and the Welsh mountains, parts of thirteen counties, the Bristol Channel, and the cathedrals of Worcester, Gloucester and Hereford. (Wikipedia)
You may associate Malvern with bottled water – and you’d be half right. It was a favourite tipple of both Elizabeth I and II but ceased production in 2010 when Coca-Cola pulled the plug, so to speak, as it lost market share. Not to put too fine a point it had only 0.4% but it’s always sad to see job losses; in this case a bafflingly low 17 employees were fired.
So why are we here if not to take the waters? To stay in a Lodge designed by Voysey and to walk the hills. The former is a delight that has been sympathetically modernised. The trademark Voysey chimney has been been converted to two wood burning stoves and the central heating is firing on all cylinders. Windows, doors, flooring all look original. Furniture is old and the bookshelves well stocked (A Pelican at Blandings, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, Right Ho Jeeves and Blandings Castle). I would like to spend a week snowed-in here.
Tomorrow a bracing walk along the hills is planned.
Perhaps Coca Cola Inc. couldn’t compete with the fact that Malvern Water is freely available from the 70 or so natural springs emerging from the Hills. Some of the wells are served by brass spouts, troughs and niches, others just bubble up out of the ground. Locals and visitors can be seen helping themselves by filling multiple containers with this purest of mineral waters.