A GROUP of youngsters from Malvern Sea Cadets have been looking for historical treasures in Great Malvern Cemetery to help the town's chances in this year's Heart of England in Bloom competition.

Twelve members of the cadets and six senior officers went along to the graveyard with Malvern in Bloom chairman John Jordan to look for famous and interesting characters who are buried in the cemetery.

Mr Jordan aims to create a trail around the cemetery so that visitors can easily locate the graves.

It is all linked to this year's Heart of England in Bloom theme of local roots.

He said: "The cadets and officers were very enthusiastic. It turned out to be great fun.

"They got quite excited when they found something interesting. We came across the grave of a policeman who died on duty while saving a young child.

"They thought this was rather interesting so I have to do some research now to find out more about him.

"There are also the graves of Charles Dyson Perrins and Dr James Wilson who practised the water cure in Malvern.

"They also found the grave of Rev Fisk, who was a vicar at the Priory in the 1800s. He was so well-respected that when Christchurch was built it was dedicated to him and known as the Fisk memorial church."

The group identified 45 interesting graves in the cemetery and Mr Jordan will now collate the information to go into a leaflet which will be available from the town's Tourist Information Centre in Church Street.

The cadets plan to return to the cemetery and clean up some of the graves so that the inscriptions can be read more clearly.

"The whole concept of the bloom competition is not to create a mini Chelsea Flower Show but to get people involved. My aim is to get people involved and raise the community spirit," added Mr Jordan.