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.

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, 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. Their online map facility is now OS Maps – can do basic stuff free.

Goldeneye is a map and guidebook publisher based in the Cotswolds, and has various maps for that area and beyond, including mountain bike routes.

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 (such as 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.

Various GPS files available via our Cycling, Walking and Malvern Hills pages, either in GPX (GPS Exchange format) or TrackLogs. Google Maps created via GPS Visualizer. A simple list:

Big Apple cycle ride (GPX from TackLogs); Google Map.
By Bike in the Malverns Foothills (Tracklogs).
Geology trail cycle ride (GPX from TrackLogs).
Wyche and Purlieu Geology trail walk (GPX from TrackLogs).
Facilities on the Malverns (GPX from TrackLogs); Google Map.
Refreshments around the area (GPX).
Link Station to Worcs Beacon walk (TrackLogs).
Three Counties Loop walk (TrackLogs); Google Map.

Navigation Resources

Try Ramblers Association navigation advice pages.

Some GPS Publications: Getting to Grips with GPS: Mastering the Skills of GPS Navigation and Digital Mapping. Cordee, March 2006, ISBN 1904207383 (read the reviews on Amazon to make sure it’s what you want). Also see GPS for Walkers: An Introduction to GPS and Digital Maps, and GPS the Easy Way – again worth checking the reviews first but it’s cheap anyway.

Weather

The Met Office does place-based 5 day forecasts – see Great Malvern’s.
Local amateur weather stations:
- Malvern Hang Gliding Club has a wind speed sensor at Wyche Cutting.
The University of Worcester has a specific interest in pollen research and produces a weekly pollen and fungal spores forecast.
Air Quality – pollution info.
Flood Warnings (Environment Agency).

Outdoor Activity Resources

See Malvern Society/Groups page for outdoor activity groups around the Hills.

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.

Open Paths and Trails looks a good place to browse for walks.

National Trails (which include Offa’s Dyke Path, Cotswold Way) web site lets you check out a range of info, whether walking or cycling.

Natural England has information about the Open Access “right to roam” land under the CROW (Countryside and Rights of Way) Act, in place around England.

Royal Geographical Society’s Discovering Britain site has good resources to explore on foot, and some good looking Shropshire walks, but nothing around Malvern (at summer 2014).

Ramblers Association advice section is quite helpful.

Out to Grass – mountain board centre near Cradley.

Outdoors Writers and Photographers Guild.

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).

Herefordshire Through Time is the website for Herefordshire Archaeology and the Herefordshire Sites and Monuments Record. Online database of sites, field names etc. and information on the county through different historical periods, from the stone age to post-medieval.

Alan Godfrey Maps for old Ordnance Survey catalogue.

Worcester’s Berrow Journal is the oldest surviving newspaper in the world, founded in 1690.

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.

The Domesday Book Online: Content awaited on Herefordshire place names, Worcestershire place names.

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.

Atlas of Hillforts includes map location and archaeological descriptions of over 4,000 hillforts across Britain and Ireland. New website 2017.

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.

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.