A GARDEN designer who is recreating one of the world’s most famous gardens for next month’s Malvern Spring Gardening Show thinks he may have stumbled across one of Worcestershire’s lost architectural treasures.

Paul Taylor, of Alchemy Gardens at Storridge, near Malvern, is building Room for a View – a valley garden inspired by Trebah, near Falmouth in Cornwall, which features a late 19th century cast iron spiral staircase manufactured by F Bradley and Co, of Kidderminster.

Mr Taylor found the piece languishing in a local reclamation yard. He went on line to look in to the history of the piece and now believes it is the original staircase from the old Kidderminster Library, which opened in 1894.

The library was demolished in the 1990s and its staircase went missing. No one, it seems, knew of its whereabouts, until now.

Mr Taylor said: “Cornwall’s Trebah garden is a personal favourite and is rated as one of the finest gardens in the world. It is a sub-tropical paradise in a Cornish valley which cascades down to a secluded beach on the Helford River. I was looking for a centre-piece to give height to the design, and the feeling of Trebah’s spectacular vista, which meanders downhill to the beach below.

“The staircase was the perfect find, but it wasn’t until I took a closer look at the maker’s stamp, and did a bit of research, that I realised what I was working with. Bradley and Co made two staircases – the other one still stands at Kidderminster railway station.

“It is a beautiful piece of cast iron, which will enhance my garden, and I am pleased to be bringing a unique piece of county history back into the spotlight again.”

The Malvern Spring Gardening Show will be held at the Three Counties Showground from May 9-12.

Mr Taylor’s garden is one of 14 innovative show gardens which will be available.