100 years ago.

It is now definitely decided that the King and Queen will visit Malvern in the second week in September, and will stay at Madresfield Court. The visit is attracting far more than local interest and two of the great Birmingham dailies have given prominence to it in their columns during the past few days, and have been recalling some former royal visits to our famous hillside town. The stay of the King and Queen in our midst will be a splendid advertisement for malvern, as the event will be recorded in all the leading Metropolitan and provincial journals of the Kingdom. It may be taken for granted that our town will rise to the occasion and give our Royal visitors an enthusiastic welcome. This will be the first occasion that His majesty and the Princess Mary have visited Malvern, but the Queen is not unacquainted with the town. As Princess Victoria of Teck, she spent some time here during her girlhood with her parents, the late Duke and Duchess of Teck, and is familiar with many parts of our district.

Malvern Gazette, July 3, 1914.

50 years ago.

The Abbey Hotel, Malvern's largest hotel, has changed hands. It has been acquired by a famous company, De Vere Hotels, who own the Royal Bath Hotel, Bournemouth, the Cavendish, Eastbourne, the Castle, Norwich, the Manor, Meriden, a string of restaurants in London, the Overtons Group, which includes the famed Hatchetts, Piccadilly, and the Mirabelle, one of the most highly reputed restaurants in the world. A director told the Malvern Gazette on Wednesday that the Abbey will continue the policy would continue the policy of Mr F W Manley, which had proved so efficient. The whole of the staff was being retained, and a manager would be appointed shortly. Mr Manley came from Newtown, Montgomery, just over six years ago. Since then he has modernised the hotel, completely refurbished it and established it once more as a leading hotel catering for conferences and large functions. He felt happy that he had sold to a progressive company who would benefit the district.

Malvern Gazette, July 3, 1964.

25 years ago.

A Malvern Hills district councillor has criticised the council for being "very slow" in bringing forward plans for Malvern's future development. It has been two years since Coun Roger Hall-Jones sent a memo to the council's chief executive expressing concern over the lack of overall policies governing where and when the council wanted to see development. Coun Hall-Jones said: "The council has been very slow in coming forward with long-term plans which Malvern needs. If we get plans for sites which we turn down, the planning appeal inspector would be quite justified in saying 'Where are your plans for the town?' and, on finding that we have none, allowing the appeal." The issue has been brought to the fore as the inspector's report on the local plan inquiry was made public. The inspector has supported all the amendments supported by the council, including deleting land at Powick for housing and the gas works site at Lower Howsell Road, Malvern, for employment.

Malvern Gazette, July 7, 1989.