A FORMER Malvern resident is hunting for a painting - which she thinks may be a Turner - loaned to a town club in the 1950s.

Mrs Joan Longridge and her late husband, Colonel T E Longridge OBE, lived at St Kenelm's, in Somers Road, between 1948 and 1953.

The large oil-painting of a sailing ship, passed down by Colonel Longridge's father, was too big to hang in the house, so was kept in the garage.

When the family moved, Mrs Longridge loaned it to what she believes was a working men's club in Malvern Link.

Mrs Longridge recalls that, years later, she saw an article in the Daily Telegraph describing the discovery of a painting of a sailing ship in Malvern, thought to be a Turner, and wondered if it was the same picture.

She said: "I only had the painting brought to mind when a member of my husband's family asked me if I still had 'the famous painting'. Apparently it was well known in the Longridge family. They were all Victorian civil and railway engineers who were buying Turners and other well-known artists."

Mrs Longridge, who now lives in Gloucestershire, contacted Malvern Hills District Council, which passed her query on to the Malvern Gazette.

She is keen to find out where the picture now hangs.