Outdoor and Historical Links
Useful resources, references and ideas relating to the Malvern Hills areas.
- Maps, including GPS info, navigation resources.
- Weather forecast.
- Outdoor activity, general walking resources, countryside stuff.
- History sources, and local history groups, canals.
Also See
- Walking guides for Malvern Hills and around.
Note: material from the Miscellany section on this page has been moved. Craft courses now under Events page; bike jewellery under Cycling Miscellany.
Maps
The Hills and Malvern itself are on Ordnance Survey Landranger 150, but sheet 149 (Hereford etc) to the west is also useful (e.g. for Ledbury, Bromyard, Much Marcle). OS Explorer 190 Malvern Hills and Bredon Hill (scale 1:25,000) gives more detail - useful for walking and off-road cycling. More on maps for cyclists on Cycling Around.
Harvey produce specialist maps, including (recommended) Malvern Hills Superwalker with The Map Shop, and also Wells of Malvern. Various CD-roms and guides, including on navigation techniques. They also produce cycle maps, but none for this area as yet.
The Map Shop in Upton is a great resource to have locally. 15 High Street, WR8 0HJ. Phone 0800 085 40 80 or 01684 593146.
Ordnance Survey web site is OK. Get-a-map is their online map facility (basic stuff free), with links to printed maps including your own 'site centred' OS Select version.
MultiMap - find an online map for a location by entering the postcode, place name or grid ref. We prefer their maps to the alternative StreetMap.
Goldeneye is a map and guidebook publisher based in the Cotswolds, and has various maps for that area and beyond, including mountain bike routes.
Old Maps. Various scales and areas with basic online views. Also see Alan Godfrey Maps for old Ordnance Survey catalogue.
Worcestershire Tithe and Inclosure Map Project provides online access to digitised 18th and 19th century maps in the county.
GPS
(Global Positioning System) Also known as 'satnav', although on MalvernTrail we are mainly interested in logs of data collected by hand or cycle held device, and edited (or drafted) using specialist software (we mainly use TrackLogs) to plot a trip. These can then be used in conjunction with tools such as Google Earth or GoogleMaps (e.g. via GPS Visualizer) to allow others to view routes and points of interest, and transferred to your own GPS device to follow in the field. Please note that the accuracy of the plotted routes can vary for various reasons (e.g. tree cover when gathering, editing or plotting errors) so it is a good idea to exercise your own judgement when following them.
TrackLogs format files are reasonably popular in cycling circles, but possibly less so for walking. As the latest version (3.12, spring 07) makes it easy to save to GPX (GPS Exchange) format, we will mainly provide routes in this in future. The GPX files may or may not include TrackLog extensions, which bump up file size greatly but otherwise shouldn't be a problem if you use other GPS software. To download a file, the usual method is to 'right-click' on the link, assuming you are on a Windows machine.
As at August 07, there are GPS files available via the Cycling, Walking and Malvern Hills pages. A complete list is on the Site Map.
Navigation Resources
Nigel's Navigation Index is a source of info on using maps, route planning (e.g Naismith's rule to gauge walking time for hilly areas).
Marshall Cale, based in South Shropshire, specialises in navigation training for hill walkers.
More course providers on Ramblers Asssociation's education info page.
Some GPS Publications: Getting to Grips with GPS: Mastering the Skills of GPS Navigation and Digital Mapping. Cordee, March 2006, ISBN 1904207383, available from Amazon.co.uk (but read the reviews first to make sure it's what you want). Also see GPS for Walkers: An Introduction to GPS and Digital Maps, available from Amazon.co.uk and GPS the Easy Way - again worth checking the reviews first but it's cheap anyway - available from Amazon.co.uk.
Weather
- The 5 day Malvern summary forecast from the BBC site includes sun and air pollution indices, wind speed. The 'nearest observation' appears to be on Chase Road, on the south west of the Hills.
- The Met Office also now does place-based 5 day forecasts - see Great Malvern's.
- The Weather Channel has a 10 day and 'hour-by-hour' forecast.
- Malvern Hang Gliding Club weather station info is offline, from autumn 2006, for re-siting.
- Malvern Wells Weather Station. See the banner above - data since Sept 06.
- Malvern Hills webcam from Midland Communications to see the current weather.
- Worcester weather station.
- South Hereford Weather Station.
- The National Pollen and Aerobiology Research Unit is based at University of Worcester. and produces the Zirtek sponsored public forecast during the pollen season. You should also be able to find current Worcester weather details on the Unit's site.
- Air Quality - pollution info.
- Flood Warnings (Environment Agency).
Outdoor Activity Resources
There's an outdoor shop in Malvern, Time Outdoors, at the top end of Church Street - mainly clothing but also some kit.
Backpackinglight is a web shop for the lightweight traveller which operates from Malvern. They also produce podcasts on outdoor activity (The Outdoors Station).
Walking Britain is one of many web sites for walkers, but not a bad one to start at. See our Walking groups and guides section, too. Another site is Walking World - they charge for access to their database of walks but seem to have a good range of contributors and a well designed package.
National Trails (which include Offa's Dyke Path, Cotswold Way) web site lets you check out a range of info, whether walking or cycling.
For those campaigning on footpaths: official guidance (pdf format) on Definitive Maps and making changes to public rights of way (in England). OpenAccess is the Countryside Agency's info site for the new access rights under the CROW (Countryside and Rights of Way) Act, which is now in place around England.
Ramblers Association practical walking advice section is quite helpful.
Walks with Wheelchairs for information on routes that are suitable for wheelchair users throughout the UK.
Out to Grass - mountain board centre near Cradley.
Yellow Wood Bushcraft Adventures - stay in a woodland bush camp in Herefordshire (near Hay) and learn bushcraft and treeclimbing skills.
Severn Area Rescue Association In-shore rescue boat and land search services for the Severn Estuary and upper reaches of the River Severn.
History
Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal Trust. This canal used to run via Ledbury, Dymock and Newent. A section is being restored at Oxenhall, near Newent, and work has been done at Yarkhill and Monkhide (west of Canon Frome - to the south is a stretch of surviving canal). More pics on Keith Kitson's site (but link problem Feb 08).
Worcester and Birmingham Canal.
Herefordshire's Sites and Monuments Record web site has sections on castles, railways, canals and more, as well as an online database of sites, field names etc. Plus information on the county through different historical periods, from the stone age to post-medieval.
Worcestershire Ceramics is currently more for the expert and student (and the first part of Pottery in Perspective), but do check if there is something of interest to you.
Worcester's Berrow Journal is the oldest surviving newspaper in the world, founded in 1690.
Witts' Archaeological Handbook of Gloucestershire dates from the 1880s and has been transcribed to the web. We found this while trying to track info on the old Salt Ways - just a little here.
The Domesday Book Online: Content awaited on Herefordshire place names, Worcestershire place names.
Looking at Buildings (link problem Feb 08) An introduction to architecture and building history from Pevsner Architectural Guides and the Buildings Books Trust.
Churches Conservation Trust. Looks after historic churches which are no longer in regular use. There's a fair number of interesting ones in Herefordshire and Worcestershire - check in the online Gazetteer
Society of Architectural Historians GB.
Current Archaeology magazine's site. Includes extracts from Handbook, including local societies.
The Association for Industrial Archaeology.
Three Counties Ancient History Society.
Worcester People and Places While centred on Worcester, this tribute to the work of local historian Bill Gwilliam has quite a bit of historic detail for the rest of the county.
Worcestershire Past. A hotchpotch of information, some quite interesting.
Local history groups
Malvern Industrial Archaeology Circle - the railways of Worcestershire.
Worcestershire Industrial Archaeology & Local History Society.
Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology.
Malvern Family History Society.
Herefordshire Family History Society.
Gloucestershire Local History.
Weobley and District Local History Society.
Forest of Dean Local History Society.
Vale of Evesham Historical Society.
West Midlands Literary Heritage.
Also see Bromyard Local History Society on Around the area page.