THE hazards of hunting were brought home to readers of the Malvern News a century ago, when the paper reported the inquest of Mr Francis James Blackwood.

Mr Blackwood died when his neck was broken after he fell from his horse near Ledbury on April 18.

Opening the inquest, the deputy coroner said so far as he had become acquainted with the circumstances, they appeared to be simple.

The first witness was Mr R Blackwood-Wileman who identified the body as that of his step-son, aged 24, who lived at Royal Well Brewery.

The inquest next heard from Mr Rowland Henry Cave-Brown-Cave of Barton Court, Colwall, who testified that Mr Blackwood went out that day with the hunt.

They were riding along together when Mr Blackwood fell after attempting to jump a gate. Death was instantaneous, according to medical evidence.

The inquest jury ruled that death was accidental.

On the same page as the inquest report, the paper carried an advertisement from the family business of Blackwood-Wileman and Blackwood.

Based at the Royal Well Brewery, West Malvern Road, the firm boasted of its "exclusive right to brew from the world-famous Royal Well".

The advertisement quotes an inspector's report which found the well "free from arsenic and not contaminated with lead or poisonous metals".

The brewery's output ranged from a mild ale at 10d per gallon, to an "invalid double stout" at 1s 8d a gallon.

After the demise of the brewery, the building fell into neglect for many years but has recently been given a new lease of life with its conversion into flats.

Also in the news in 1901 was the continuing controversy over the proposal to supply electricity to the town.

A meeting of ratepayers from the Link Ward displayed strong hostility to the proposal.

Councillor Foster spoke up "at considerable length" against the scheme, saying that, at a time of increasing taxation, people could not afford it.

A similar meeting in the Priory Ward came out in favour of electrification. The meeting was told that where electric lighting had been tried in other towns, it had been a great success; a scheme introduced in Wallasey four years earlier was by a profit of £1,000 a year.

"If Malvern was to be kept in the front rank of watering places, it must have this light," said Mr Davis.