AS the end of an era rapidly approaches for Malvern Community Hospital staff are supporters are preparing to hold their annual summer fete in the familiar surrounds of Lansdowne Crescent for the final time.

By the time next year’s event comes around the hospital will be long gone from Lansdowne Crescent, with a new £17 million facility at Seaford Court taking shape and set to open before the end of the year.

Taking place from 2-5pm on Saturday, July 24 the summer fete will offers visitors a final chance to enjoy the hospital’s award-winning garden, which is entirely maintained by volunteers.

To mark the imminent move to Seaford Court after almost 100 years in Lansdowne Crescent a series of special information boards will be on display at the event.

These document the history of hospital care in Malvern, looking at the original Rural Hospital that opened in Hospital Bank in 1868 and Charles Dyson Perrins’ efforts in building the current facility, which opened in 1911.

There will also be information on temporary wartime hospitals in Malvern, and a look at the history of St Wulstan’s in Malvern Wells, which started out as an army facility and went on to serve as a TB hospital and later a psychiatric rehabilitation hospital.

The fund-raising summer fete will feature a wide range of stalls, refreshments and attractions and organisers are hoping for a visit from Malvern’s new MP Harriett Baldwin, who has been a big supporter of the campaign to build the new hospital.

John Jordan, of the League of Friends of Malvern Community Hospital, hopes the event will be well supported.

“This will be the last time we hold this event in Lansdowne Crescent and a last chance for people to relive memories of the current site,” he said. “Fund-raising events like this enable the hospital to have those extra items of equipment that are not covered by the budget.

“However well-supported any hospital is there is always something else that can help.”