THE controversy over proposals to build a prison at Blackmore Camp, just outside Malvern, continued unabated 50 years ago, with Malvern Hills Conservators and Hanley Castle Parish Council both adding their voices to the calls for a public inquiry.

"Ninety-five per cent of residents of Hanley Castle and Hanley Swan have signed a petition protesting against the proposal," reported the Gazette.

"Malvern Hills Conservators voiced their protest over the proposals, and agreed that a public inquiry was 'very necessary'.

"Mr R W Green felt the matter was very much the concern of the Conservators. He thought there had been a lot of uninformed talk about the Prison Commissioners' proposal and that they ought to wait and see what it really meant."

The Gazette readers were having their say as well, and they were not as uniformly opposed as one might have thought.

Sonia Keats of Malvern Link wrote: ""In opposing this prison, I think we will reveal ourselves as very selfish,. We still have our hills and beautiful views across the plain."

Dr A S Wigfield of Hanley Swan wrote: ""Without any farther details, half the population has jumped to the conclusion that the one thing the prison will not do is imprison the inmates, and that no-one in Malvern will sleep soundly at night for fear of being bludgeoned by thugs or maniacs, whose one thought would be to get away."

And D F Sampson of Bawdsey Avenue said: "Those who wish to place it in a remote inaccessible spot give little thought to the lot of those most overworked of our servants, the prison warders and their families, who would be condemned to a life little better than that of their charges."