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. Grouped into:
- Organic and local sources, veg boxes.
- Cheese and dairy.
- Some shops, cafes, farms around the three counties.
- Green Matters.
- Natural World.
- Horticulture, Gardens and gardening.
- Alternative Malvern.
Also See
- Food festivals and other events celebrating local produce, such as Pershore Plum Fayre, Big Apple weekend are on the Events page.
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
See our Food page for local beer, wine, etc., places to eat in/near Malvern, including veggie.
Organic, wholefood, local
Malvern has two organic/wholefood specialist shops:
– Bran Tub, Worcester Road, vegetarian.
– 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
- Little Marcle Organic Produce, with Flights Orchard Farm.
- Skylark Organics is based at Cradley, phone 01886 881097, and runs a box scheme across Worcestershire and Herefordshire.
- Further away (Ombersley, west of Droitwich) is Farm Direct Produce. Deliveries around Worcestershire.
- Oxton Organics, Fladbury, near Pershore has been operating since 1994.
Roots farm shop at Rushwick, phone 01905 421104, is connected with Upper Wick Farm, off the bypass south of Worcester, and sells a range of organic and local produce.
Instone Court, south of Bromyard, has a farm vending set up, with their own produce (eggs, soft fruit, jams, garden produce tec) plus various local suppliers.
Local cheeses, dairy
Berry’s (was Just Rachel) ice creams are available through various local outlets. They are based at Eggs Tump, Bromsberrow.
Mousetrap Cheese / Monkland Cheese Dairy near Leominster produce their own Little Hereford Cheeses. Also cafe and cheesemaking tours. Phone 01568 720307.
Around
Refreshment stops for hungry/thirsty cyclists and walkers not too far from Malvern are generally listed under the Town and Villages section – West from Malvern, North and East, South and East.
The Fold at Bransford has The EcoCafé, serving local, seasonal, fairtrade and organic food.
Field Fayre sells local, organic produce. 18-19 Broad Street, Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire, HR9 7EA. Phone 01989 566683.
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.
Hereford possibilities: Rocket kitchen cafe, 24 Church Street, HR1 2LR; Fodder wholefood shop in Church Street.
Shepherds Ice Cream, Peterchurch. “The original sheep’s milk ice cream, an ice cream with less than 7% fat.”
Green Matters
- Check the associated Malvern Green website for local environmental groups and projects.
- The Cider page has some apple and local orchards info.
The Great Collaboration provides a toolkit to record personal carbon-reducing actions and also influence local council policy. Originally created for use in Herefordshire, now spreading its wings (2022).
Energy Tracers helps residents minimise energy consumption at low cost, using a thermal camera to track heat loss. A project run from West Malvern.
The Green Shop, Bisley, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL6 7BX (north east of Stroud).
Green Investing – “make your pounds green” run by a Dymock resident and professional adviser, who is also setting up mygreenpension for a pension scheme which is truly putting money into companies working to bring about environmental and social change and towards protecting nature.
Marches Energy Agency – a charity providing advice and support on energy conservation and renewable energy in Shropshire, Herefordshire & Worcestershire.
Caplor Energy is a renewable energy business based at a farm near Fownhope, with an agriculture focus but cover other commercial and domestic too.
The Marches Growth Hub appears to have taken on the Impetus business loans facility (across Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire), with a core aim of supporting community sustainability.
Natural World etc.
See main Malvern Hills page for AONB (official Area of Outstanding 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 Landscape 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.
Worcestershire Naturalists Club. Includes a top ten list of places to visit.
Worcestershire Biological Records Centre.
St. Wulstan’s Nature Reserve, Malvern Wells.
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.
Madley Environmental Study Centre, approx. 7 miles south west of Hereford, is worth a mention.
Herefordshire Fungus Survey Group.
Wye and Usk Foundation A charity concerned with restoring the habitat, water quality and fisheries of the rivers Wye and Usk.
Worcester and Malvern RSPB Group.
West Midlands Butterfly Conservation ‘saving butterflies, moths and their habitats’.
Gloucestershire Geoconservation Trust.
Sustainable horticulture
The Stick Smith (was Wildwood Coppice Crafts) has been run by Dave Jackson since 1999.
Coppicing in the Malverns and Teme Valley (Phil Hopkinson).
Dymock Forest Rural Action – conserving the Golden Triangle landscape (famous for its daffodils, also a major supplier of native acorns for growing oak saplings). Mailing list: dyfradaffs@gn.apc.org
Ragmans Lane Farm, Forest of Dean, runs on permaculture principles and run courses (including a cider and apple juice weekend).
Gardening
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 4pm, Thurs to Sat in season. Evendine Lane, Colwall, WR13 6DY. Phone 01684 540631.
The Ledbury Flower Farmer produces seasonal, sustainably grown blooms for local customers.
Cottage Herbery. Mill House, Boraston Ford, Boraston, near Tenbury Wells, WR15 8LZ. Phone 01584 781575.
Moors Meadow Garden and Nursery, north of Bromyard. Seven acre organic hillside site.
Gloucestershire Organic Gardening Group.
Alternative Malvern and beyond
See society page for health groups and others.
Malvern Hills Amnesty International has a bookshop in Edith Walk (up from Waitrose).
Anybody’s Barn provides self-catering group accommodation for courses and workshops for up to 20 people, at low cost. Has been used by the likes of Buddhists, therapy groups, schools, women’s groups, inner city community groups. Located at Birchwood Hall (SO752500), which is where Elgar learnt to cycle! Phone 01886 884635.
Straw House, Putley is on the Cider Cycle Route.
The British Society of Dowsers, which did have offices in the centre of Malvern, is still in the local area.