Sustained Visits
MalvernTrail encourages sustainable tourism approaches and other ways to reduce environmental impact.
- Organic foods and small scale production can be
good for the environment, particularly if 'food miles'
are also reduced.
- Organic and local sources, veg boxes
- Directories
- Cheeses
- Farmers Markets
- Farms and shops around the counties.
- Other sections on this page:
Also See
- Food page for local beer, wine, places to eat. Also see Cider page, with some apple and local orchards info. Gardens with tea rooms outside Malvern are generally listed under Town and villages.
- See Malvern Green site for local environmental information, including recycling.
Getting around
Use public transport, cycling and walking to minimise environmental impact, maximise enjoyment and appreciate the locality. See Walking the Malverns for local groups, guides and leaflets.For bike travel, Cycling Around Malvern for countryside, Cycle in Malvern for town facilities, and places on our Around Malvern page are within cycling distance (but not necessarily for low-mileage cyclists!). Getting Here gives local train and bus details.
Food
Find out more about the issues at Countryside Agency's Eat the View web site.
Organic, wholefood, local
Malvern has two organic/wholefood specialist outlets:
- Bran Tub, Worcester Road (near the row of estate agents)
- Greenlink Organics, Graham Road. Has a cafe area, also refill your Ecover bottles here.
Waitrose, in between these two, has a good selection of organic veg and produce.
Organic Box schemes
- Flights Orchard, with locally sourced produce. Delivers within 60 miles or so from the base near Ledbury - basically across the West Midlands
- Just Good Foods, Cradley, phone 01886 880085. Sourced from local conscientious growers and organic producers.
- Skylark Organics has a Cradley address, phone 01886 881097, and runs a box scheme.
- Shared Harvest, Orchard Oak, of Woolhope, HR1 4RJB. Local and organic home delivery box scheme and Fairtrade wholefoods to Ross, Hereford and Leominster areas. Phone 01989 740312. (Info from Herefordshire Fairtrade site)
- Further away (Ombersley, west of Droitwich) is Farm Direct Produce. Deliveries around Worcestershire.
- Oxton Organics, Fladbury, near Pershore has been operating since 1994.
Phoenix Organics is a wholesaler of UK and imported organic fruit and vegetables, based at Cradley.
Haygrove Farm near Ledbury supplies strawberries to M&S, and apparently uses organic pest control (chickens, hedgehogs).
See vegboxschemes for choices elsewhere.
Directories and Guides
Malvern Hills AONB has produced a guide to buying Local Orchard Fruit.
Worcestershire's Tourism Unit has a Food and Drink directory available at selected venues, including some farmers markets. See their Tastes of Worcestershire web pages for a flavour.
Gloucestershire Food Links web site has grown from local food initiatives.
Heart of England Fine Food Various categories, including Dairy.
Farm buying opportunities elsewhere via Farm Retail Association (now part of FARMA)
Local cheeses, dairy
Lightwood Cheese is a little north of Malvern: Lightwood Lane, Cotheridge, phone 01905 333468. Cheeses made from milk from own farms include Elgar Mature, Severn Vale.
Mousetrap Cheese / Monkland Cheese Dairy near Leominster produce their own Little Hereford Cheeses. Also cafe and cheesemaking tours. Their cheese shops in Leominster, Hereford and Ludlow are likely to sell local cheeses. Phone 01568 720307.
House of Cheese Cotswolds cheesemongers based in Tetbury.
Just Rachel ice creams are available through various local outlets. They are based at Eggs Tump, Bromsberrow.
The Ice Bytes Internet Cafe in Ledbury was sourcing ice cream from a local supplier (Beacon Hill Farm) which uses organic methods but we need an update on whether this still holds (Feb 08).
Farmers Markets
Info on the ones we've come across, plus some from National Association of Farmers Markets (part of FARMA). Most take place in the mornings only (to about 1 or 2pm).
Also see Worcestershire Farmers Markets web site, which has up-to-date details, producers attending etc. for Malvern, Pershore, Evesham and others in the county. In Herefordshire, phone 01886 821237. You may also come across a leaflet produced by Pershore Group of Colleges.
Bromyard - Market Place, 4th Thursday each month.
Evesham - High Street. 4th Friday monthly (not mentioned on Pershore leaflet autumn 04)
Forest of Dean: Cinderford Town Centre, 1st Friday monthly; Coleford Town Centre, 2nd Friday monthly; Lydney - Newerne St car park, 3rd Friday monthly; Newent Town House, 4th Friday monthly.
Hanley Swan Village Hall. Third Sunday of the month, 11 to 2.
Malvern - in Abbey Road (by Post Office/gatehouse), third Saturday of the month, 9 to 2.
Ross-on-Wye - Market Hall, High Street. First Friday monthly.
Teme Valley Market at the Talbot Inn. Second Sunday.
Tewkesbury - Abbey car park. Second Saturday monthly.
Around
The Fold at Bransford has The EcoCafé (new May 2007), serving local, seasonal, fairtrade and organic food.
Shortwood Organic Farm has many family friendly activities for a 'fun day out', including cider making in October. Pencombe, Bromyard, Herefordshire, HR7 4RP. Phone 01885 400205.
Ross-onWye - Field Fayre sells local, organic produce. 18-19 Broad Street, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, HR9 7EA. Phone 01989 566683.
If you are travelling via Cirencester (Glos), check out The Organic Farm Shop.
Dunkertons
Organic Cider and Perry Mill is under Pembridge
(on the Places Around page). Also near Pembridge: Leen
Farm Organics - home to the oldest herd of Hereford cattle.
September Organic in Weobley produces great ice creams. (Belatedely we realise their dairy near Almeley - hence pic on left - closed down due to the events of 2003.)
The Dairy House in Weobley produces a range of organic dairy products - yoghurts, cheesecakes, cream, cheese and more. Phone 01544 318815.
Hampton Court, Hope Under Dinmore, Leominster, HR6 0PN. Phone 01568 797777. Organic gardens and restaurant/tea room in historic castle grounds.Hampton Court Trust aims to demonstrate practical ways of using sustainable principles in the natural environment.
Cafe Green (web site appears defunct, spring 08) 39-43 St Owens Street, Hereford, phone 01432 267550. Organic, veggie, Fairtrade and wholefood cafe in Hereford opened 2006. Fresh fruit and vegetable juice prepared on the spot, internet access too. A wholefood shop is also being developed at the back of the courtyard. Another wholefood shop in Hereford: Fodder in Church Street.
Green Cuisine food and health courses at Penrhos Court (Kington).
Shepherds Ice Cream, Peterchurch. "The original sheeps milk ice cream, an ice cream with less than 7% fat."
Pengethley Farm Shop SO540255 Peterstow, HR9 6LN. West of Ross-on-Wye.
Shepherd's Farm Shop, near Newent, Gloucestershire. A wide range of food and drink from local and regional producers.
Revills Farm Shop, Defford (west of Pershore). Locally sourced produce, tea room.
Ragmans Lane Farm, Forest of Dean, runs on permaculture principles and run courses (including a cider and apple juice weekend).
We've seen a mention of an organic food shop at Old Park, Lydney Park Estate, Forest of Dean.
Alternative Malvern and beyond
Eco and other developments
Check Environment News page too. Local musicians on Events page; alternative health under personal services.
Anybody's Barn. Mainly a retreat for Bristol Buddhist Centre (?), but available to others eg National Trust use it. Located at Birchwood Hall (SO752500), which is where Elgar learnt to cycle! Phone 01886 884635.
Malvern Hills Amnesty International has a bookshop in Edith Walk (up from Waitrose). There's some information on the Worcester AI web pages.
Floating Lotus provides a mobile solar powered geodesic venue for concerts, conferences, festivals, community events etc.
Marches Energy Agency - a charity supporting energy conservation and renewable energy in Shropshire, Herefordshire & Worcestershire.
Herefordshire Greenlinks provides a green directory covering food, transport, waste, health and more. There's also a Worcestershire Greenlinks, currently only covering food-related products and services. (Both are hosted on Gaia Cooperative site.)
Ecotopia, orginally in Nailsworth, moved to Stroud, dedicated to supplying environmentally friendly, energy saving and recycled products to the general public.
The Green Shop, Bisley, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL6 7BX. (north east of Stroud).
Straw House, Putley is on the Cider Cycle Route.
Quite a few local craft workers try to incorporate sustainability ideas. See under Arts and Crafts on Malvern Interest.
Malvern Hills Coppice Network is about supporting the conservation of local woodlands and coppice crafts. From the Malvern Gazette (1/9/06): "Craftsman Dave Jackson [of Wildwood Crafts] hopes to revive traditional woodland crafts with the help of a £5,000 grant from the Malvern Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Mr Jackson plans to set up a network of local people involved in a wide range of woodland crafts, from coppicing and pole lathe turning to hedgelaying and charcoal burning."
The British Society of Dowsers has its offices in Malvern.
Impetus is the local (Worcs, Here, S Shrops) Community Development Finance Initiative, helping the local economy to grow.
Natural World etc.
See main Malvern Hills page for AONB (official area of natural beauty) and more. Our photo albums include ones of fungi and butterflies on the Hills.
Worcestershire Wildlife Trust owns or manages over 70 nature reserves, most of them open to visitors. Ravenshill Wood SO740539 just north of the Hills, near Alfrick, is in fact privately owned but closely connected to WWT. Knapp and Papermill reserve SO751522 is close by and Crews Hill Wood SO734531 is another in the locality. See Walking page for WIldlife and Ladnscape Trail info. Boynes Coppice and Meadows is just west of Upton, but access is by special permit only, while Brotheridge Green SO817413 is north of there, requiring a permit for non-members. Drake Street Meadow at Welland is another requiring special permit, as is Marshlands Meadow, part of the old Longdon Marsh 5 miles west of Tewkesbury. Poolhay Meadows SO831306, off B4211 Upton to Gloucester Road. Events diary link; Malvern local group.
Worcestershire Naturalists Club. Includes a top ten list of places to visit.
Woodland Trust woods in the area include Crumpton Hill Wood SO760488 just east of Storridge; Netherwood SO620491 at Stoke Lacy (and rated as well worth a visit by the Trust). Copcut SO889612 is just south of Droitwich.
St. Wulstan's Nature Reserve, Malvern Wells.
Madley Environmental Study Centre, approx. 7 miles south west of Hereford, is worth a mention.
Worcester and Malvern RSPB Group.
Herefordshire Amphibian & Reptile Team.
Herefordshire Fungus Survey Group. Web site seems to have lost all its useful content at Sept 06 - may return.
Wye and Usk Foundation A charity concerned with restoring the habitat, water quality and fisheries of the rivers Wye and Usk.
West Midlands Butterfly Conservation 'saving butterflies, moths and their habitats'.
The National Trust is trialling 'sustainable farming' on its Brockhampton Estate.
Worcestershire Biological Records Centre.
Gloucestershire Geoconservation Trust.
Gardening
The garden at Barnards Green House opens as part of the National Garden Scheme. Every Thursday April to September (as at 2006). Phone 01684 574446.
Little Malvern Court and Madresfield Court - see Interest page.
Caves Folly Nurseries Some fruit and veg, organic compost, as well as a wide range of organically grown Herbaceous Perennials, Alpines, Grasses and Herbs. 10am to 5pm, Thurs to Sat. Evendine Lane, Colwall, WR13 6DY. Phone 01684 540631.
Chris Patterson nurseryman (link problem Feb 08) Small wholesale / retail nursery growing a wide range of shrubs and alpines, stocks of Tufa Rock. Non-organic as far as we know. Brookend, Pendock, GL19 3PL. Phone 01531 650480.
Cottage Herbery. Mill House, Boraston Ford, Boraston, near Tenbury Wells, WR15 8LZ. Phone 01584 781575.
Plantation Cottage Herbs, Bricklehampton, near Bredon Hill.
Burford House Gardens houses the National Clematis Collection.
Moors Meadow Garden and Nursery, north of Bromyard. Seven acre organic hillside site.
Wildflower Seeds can be sourced from Design By Nature, based near Leominster (but not open to the public).
'Church Meadow' Garden Mulch and Soil Conditioner based on sheep manure (but odour free!) is being produced locally at Sollers Hope. Also available: lawn dressing. Phone 01989 740213. Delivery free in Herefordshire and into Malvern.
Also see Specialist Plant Nurseries of Gloucestershire and Worcestershire (compiled by Glos group of Nat Council for Conservation of Plants and Gardens).