THE director of a Malvern arts festival has come up with an unusual idea to make one of the town centre's less attractive features into a unique war memorial.

Peter Smith, founder and artistic director of Autumn in Malvern, wants to paint the metal stubs on the Priory churchyard wall which borders much of the souther side of Church Street.

The cast-iron stubs are all that remains of once-elegant Victorian railings that were cut off and taken away to provide metal for one of the twentieth century's two world wars.

Mr Smith said: "For more than 70 years these stubs have looked like a line of bad teeth, making the wall very unattractive."

Over the years, suggestions have been made to turn the granite capping stones over to hide the stubs out of sight, but to no avail.

However, Mr Smith suggests that if the stubs, which number more than 80, are painted gold, they could serve as a war memorial to people from Malvern who lost their lives in the two world wars and other wars.

He said ''These stubs are in effect, existing installation art, which serve as a powerful metaphor. All the resonances are there; the broken and disfigured surfaces, and the absence of the railings, representing the effect of war on individuals and families.

"The gold stubs would honour their sacrifice, especially this year, when we mark the centenary of the ending of the Great War.''

Mr Smith has approached the church authorities for permission, and if it is granted, the festival will fund the painting of the stubs together with a simple memorial plate, explaining the meaning of the project.

Last year, Autumn in Malvern commissioned and funded the Lark Ascending sculpture in Rose Bank Gardens.