BAD weather did not stop people enjoying the Easter holiday a century ago, judging by reports in the Mal-vern Gazette.

"The morning was ushered in with a snowstorm and the outlook was very forbidding. The wind was northerly and when the keen gusts swept across the town, they made one tremble for the holiday. As the day wore on, we had a mixture of sunshine, snow, and hail.

"The town was pretty full of visitors for the weekend and Monday brought the usual crowd of excursionists, many of them as usual spending the greater portion of the day on the hills," the paper reported.

"Those who did not care to encounter the breezes of the uplands stayed in the town, watched the meet of the Ledbury Hounds on the Belle Vue Terrace and start of the Fire Brigade procession, and later proceeded to the Link Common and took part in the customary amusements which the itinerant showman provided.

"A very large crowd was present on the Terrace during the meet. It was almost impossible to walk along the thoroughfare, so numerous were the spectators. The sun at the time was shining brightly as the huntsmen proceeded in the direction of North Malvern, but before they had gone far, the sky became dull and overcast and a storm followed.

"In the afternoon the weather had matters pretty much its own way. The Fire brigade competitions took place at intervals amid a generous fall of snow, which carpeted the neighbourhood in wintry white. The wind, too, was cold and biting, and those who lined the enclosure shivered even in their warm wraps."