"SCHOOLS join forces" was the headline in the Gazette 25 years ago, revealing that Seaford Court School was to merge with the Elms School at Colwall.

It was disclosed that West Midlands Regional Health Authority was planning to buy the school site in Malvern Link, in order to "develop a community hospital for the area".

"It is a plan that has been on the stocks for some years, but the spokesman said it was not known at present just how large the hospital will be.

"It is possible that it will be used for geriatric, and psycho-geriatrics, but nothing has been finally decided. Though negotiations should be completed during the summer, it is unlikely that we will start to build for two years yet," said the spokesman.

"The site is absolutely ideal for us, because it is next to the former St Cuthbert's and Brynderwin Hospital, which was once a convalescent home. It had been closed for some years now, but the building belongs to us, and together with Seaford Court and its playing field will make an ideal site."

The present-day Gazette reader could perhaps be forgiven a sardonic laugh on reading this, since a quarter of a century has now elapsed without the appearance of the promised new hospital.

Seaford Court School came to Malvern from Littlehampton on the south coast in 1940, as part of the wartime evacuation.