Looking back at 2000

January

THE 21st Century got off to a bang with thousands of people making their way up to Worcestershire Beacon for a bonfire and beacon lighting ceremony. Around the Malvern area there were parties and bonfires galore, but no trouble. Police reported a quiet night.

THE closure of the eurohaus garage in Malvern Link sparked talk about interest in the site from a supermarket chain. Lidl has since applied for planning permission but has not yet received a decision from Malvern Hills District Council.

PROPOSALS for Malvern's £1.8 million sports hall in Priory Road went on show to the public, but that scheme also ends 2000 with questions marks over it. The project has been frozen by Malvern Hills District Council, amid funding problems and debate over whether it is in the right place.

MUM Gill Dewson publicly stood up to support the use of a controversial incubator after an inquiry was launched into trials of its use by hospital officials in North Staffordshire. Mrs Dewson, from Malvern, said she believes her son Sam's life was saved when he was put in the incubator when born a decade ago.

RATES of TB in cattle in Herefordshire were revealed to be one of the highest in the country. This prompted demands to re-start scientific trials into the effects of culling badgers, which are blamed for carrying the disease. Sabotage by animal rights activists had forced the abandonment of the trials the previous year.

BOSBURY postmistress Christine Martin was praised for her coolness when faced with a masked robber armed with a knife, phoning police from a secure room at the store as the raider tried to force the till.

SUPPORTERS of Ledbury Amateur Dramatic Society were celebrating as the town's new £350,000 Market Theatre was opened after years of fundraising.

A DIRECTOR with Quintiles, which carries out tests on animals, put his home on the market, prompting claims by animal rights protesters that the tactic of picketing the homes of workers was paying off.

February

A CHARITY screening of the Leonardo DiCaprio blockbuster, The Beach, in Malvern was the first public sight of the film in the UK, 24 hours before it went on general release.

Malvern Wells Players pledged to carry on with their production as a tribute to David O'Malley, following his death in a house fire in Middlesex. The 32-year-old had been due to play Dracula in Frankenstein the Pantomime.

SIXTY years of educational history in Malvern was set to end following the announcement that Malvern Girls' College was to close its junior school, Croftdown, at the end of the summer term.

IN another blow to Malvern's heritage, thieves stole the toposcope from Worcestershire Beacon, where it had stood for more than a century, identifying the landmarks which can be seen from the Hills. A specially made replacement has been provided by the Malvern Hills Conservators.

LEDBURY Town Council threw its support behind plans to site the new Community Hospital on the Cattle Market site, a move carried by just one vote. Herefordshire Council gave planning permission for the scheme just a few weeks later.

A NEWENT woman said she felt "fine" after returning from America, having had a hole drilled in her skull. She had been assisted in trepanning herself, an age old method of relieving pressure on the brain, but one frowned on in many medical quarters as dangerous.

ASTRONOMER Steve Foulkes discovered a supernova after a two-year search as part of the UK Supernova Patrol. He became only the fifth British amateur astronomer to find one. It has been designated SN2000C, with his name attached.

POLICE in Bromyard were investigating two distraction burglaries in the town and linking them to the activities of conmen operating in Ross and Hereford.

March

MORGAN unveiled its new Aero 8 at a trade show in Geneva, the car going on to be a huge success and forcing the company to apply for an extension to its Malvern factory to keep pace with demand. Meanwhile, Morgan enthusiasts were opposing a planning application to demolish the company's first factory in Worcester Road as part of a redevelopment of the Brooklyn Ford operation.

A WORCESTER Crown Court judge urged the Splash to adopt separate changing facilities for men and women, after fining a man for gross indecency at the venue. The call was not taken on board by owners Malvern Hills District Council or the operators SLM.

THE new Malvern Sea Cadets' base in Spring Lane would be opened by Prince Andrew, it was announced, the unit carrying his title, TS Duke of York.

A £1 million plan to develop a second phase of the Malvern Hills Science Park was announced, with the aim of creating 160 new jobs. After an initial failure to secure Government money, funds were found later in the year.

VITO the Old English Sheepdog made a bit of canine history when he became what is thought to be the first dog to take part in a foreign show using a pet passport, when he travelled to Holland.

RETIRED Ledbury firefighter Nigel Smith joined a lobby of Parliament as part of a campaign to make the drug Beta Interferon available on the NHS.

FRIENDS of the Earth signalled its opposition to plans to plant a test crop of genetically modified oil seed rape at Kempley, as part of Government trials.

HALF a century of tradition came to an end with the announcement that the Much Marcle and Yatton Show was being scrapped, as organisers faced a continuing struggle to cover costs.

April

RESEARCH uncovered one of Malvern's wartime secrets - the existence of a specially trained unit prepared to spread havoc behind enemy lines in the event of a German invasion.

AGE Concern Malvern launched its Handy Person Scheme to help elderly people with odd jobs around the home. The scheme had attracted a National Lottery grant of £110,000.

IN a taste of things to come, Malvern suffered its wettest April since records began in the town more than a century ago. Weather watchers recorded 122 hours of rain during the month.

THE World's first Mormon chapel at Gadfield Elm, near Eldersfield, was reopened to the public after 150 years, following a £75,000 refurbishment. Mormon leader Brigham Young was among the people to have preached there, after it was given to the church in 1840.

HOPES of a sympathetic buyer greeted the news that the former home of Dymock Poet, Robert Frost, was up for sale. Little Iddens was home to the American in the period immediately before First World War.

PLANS for a sculpture trail and historic buildings trail were announced for Bromyard, with a budget of £16,000 part paid for by the European Union.

ANOTHER historic landmark, The Talbot in Ledbury, went on the market, carrying a price tag of more than £500,000. Among the Tudor building's claims to fame was a Civil War skirmish fought in its dining room during the Battle of Ledbury.

BISHOPS Frome craftsman Mike Abbot met Prince Charles after being invited to a private reception at Highgrove. Mr Abbott uses age old techniques such as the pole-lathe to create furniture from freshly-fell timber, and was invited in recognition of his training of young people in the "greenwood industry".

May

THE Conservatives seized control of Malvern Hills District Council after the elections, having been given a head start after the Liberal Democrats failed to field candidates in every seat.

MALVERN'S Millennium Mystery Play got under way at the town's Priory, involving a large community cast and bringing together months of work.

PRINCE Andrew arrived in town to official unveil the new Elgar statue and water feature. He went on to tour the new Malvern Sea Cadets' headquarters.

THE full extent of the economic boom in the Malvern Hills was demonstrated by jobless figures which had halved in just two years. Waitrose and the Roman Way retail development had added more than 700 jobs to the Malvern economy.

LEDBURY doctor Rob Davies shrugged off the theft of his bike as he prepared to take on a coast-to-coast cycle ride, to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis charity.

HOSPITAL developers Shaw Homes announced it had enough shares to secure the Cattle Market site, opening the way for a new hospital by the autumn of 2001.

THE town took centre stage at the Millennium Dome, representing Herefordshire with a day of displays at the London landmark. Ledbury Community Choir, Ledbury Primary School and John Masefield High School pupils were among the performers.

HEREFORDSHIRE Council's new chairman was announced as Ledbury councillor Peter Harling, who described it as "more than an honour". Marcle Ridge councillor Don Rule was recruited onto the Council's seven-strong ruling cabinet, along with Bromyard councillor Chris Grover.

June

MALVERN rock band Bad Habits hit the headlines after recording a song in honour of TV cook Delia Smith, which had been picked up for the playlists of several radio stations, including those in Delia's home area in East Anglia.

CYCLISTS mooted the idea of opening the redundant railway tunnel through the Hills for a cycle trail linking Colwall and Malvern Wells. The idea was not totally welcomed, one problem being the presence of a colony of lesser-horseshoe bats.

A SOLDIER from Earls Croome, Henry Rowberry, was one of 21 remembered with the unveiling of a plaque in Worcester Cathedral. The plaque recalled the men of the 1st Battalion The Worcestershire Regiment, who died in the Malayan emergency in the early 1950s.

HUNDREDS of people made the journey to the top of the Malvern Hills for the official naming of an area south of British Camp as Millennium Hill. The idea had been suggested by the Malvern Hills Conservators' warden Jim McArthur.

VALERIE Howe picked up the title of Ledbury Town Volunteer of the Year for her work with the Ring and Ride charity, while Bosbury man Brian Clutterbuck was named Rural Volunteer of the Year for his youth work and for founding the Bosbury Welcome Club.

JOINT Master of the Ledbury Hunt, Donald Haden, said he would go to prison in defence of hunting, continuing to hunt even if the Government did bring in a ban.

TELEVISION presenter Davina McCall got married to boyfriend Matthew Robertson at St John the Baptist Church, Eastnor. The pair went on to have their reception at Eastnor Castle.

JOHN Masefield teacher Martin Smith was named the best new secondary teacher in the West Midlands, winner a Plato Award from the Teachers Awards Trust.

July

THE Waitrose supermarket - probably the most controversial development in Malvern in recent years - was named the building winner of Malvern Civic Society's Award Scheme 2000.

PARENTS Debbie Grey and Colin Hodgkins heard their six-year-old son Jack say "mummy" for the first time. Jack, who has autism, had five days of intensive therapy at a specialist institute in Massachusetts, USA.

VETERANS were preparing to transport a piece of Malvern stone to France, where it was to be part of a memorial to the men of the 1st Battalion, The Worcestershire Regiment, who fell in fighting during the D-Day Operation. The stone now sits in a layby in Vernonnet, where the Battalion had its first headquarters after the landings.

THE Government announced plans to part-privatise the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) with 75 per cent of its 12,000 staff, including most of those in Malvern, joining the proposed private company.

AN organic strawberry grower announced success in trials of a secret weapon in the war against slugs - an army of hedgehogs. Little Marcle-based Haygrove Fruit provided hedgehog paradise for 50 animals from the wildlife sanctuary at Hartpury College and saw slug damage decline.

LEDBURY Poetry Festival recorded its first ever heckler when a man was ejected from a reading by festival patron Carol Ann Duffy, who was presenting work from her latest collection, The World's Wife.

QUNITILES agreed to sell its Ledbury plant, which employed 160 people, to Sequani Ltd, which said it planned to continue the work of the medical research company.

MICHAEL Aspel joined drinkers at The Talbot for a pint after filming an edition of the Antiques Roadshow at Eastnor Castle. He tucked into a pint of Buty Bach, a medium-strength offering from the Wye Valley Brewery.

August

THE team of Malvern animators behind the Jellikins children's television series were celebrating a £3 million deal with US giant Fox. The deal gave the series a prominent and regular slot on US television.

MALVERN Hills District Council was facing the prospect of finding homes for around 20 asylum-seekers being moved to the area as part of moves to take the pressure off the South-East. The plans later fell through.

COLWALL mum Sarah Stayte "stole" her son George's bike from outside the Splash to teach him a lesson. She said she hoped it would teach him to lock it up.

MONEY came flowing into the Malvern Hills, the National Lottery putting aside £863,500 ready for an acceptable scheme to be developed by the Malverns Heritage Project to reintroduce natural grazing to the Hills and restore water features. The Government also agreed a £1 million grant towards the costs of Phase II of the Malvern Hills Science Park.

POLICE in Bromyard launched a major investigation into allegations of a sex assault on a teenage girl. Publicity resulted in a second woman coming forward and reporting being grabbed, although she fought the assailant off.

JEMIMA Parry-Jones, director of the Newent's National Bird of Prey Centre, travelled to India to investigate the decline of flesh-eating vultures. The vultures are important in the Parsee religion, whose followers put their dead out for the birds to eat.

MEADOW Cheese Ltd announced plans to double its workforce thanks to its growing reputation and increasing exports to the USA. The company said it planned to extend its Ledbury factory.

LEDBURY Carnival was dubbed the best ever with a crowd of around 8,000 packing into the town centre and enjoying the circus theme.

September

DERA announced a ten-year project to redevelop its site, with the prospect of a further 1,000 jobs. The scheme promised the biggest physical change to the Malvern operation since the move to the town during Second World War.

THE 60th anniversary of the Battle of Britain was remembered at a service in Malvern and by those who took part. On the receiving end of a raid was the area around Link Common on September 4, 1940, when nine 110lb bombs landed.

PANIC buying of petrol and essentials like bread characterised Malvern's response to the fuel crisis. A pony and trap was pressed into service for a school run in Cradley in one of the more inventive developments.

MALVERN cyclist Ceris Gilfillan represented Britain in the Sydney Olympics, turning in good performances, which augur well for Athens 2004 (see below left).

DYMOCK'S oldest resident, 99-year-old Violet Hawtin, pulled her last pint at The Horseshoe at Broomsgreen, on a special visit after the announcement the pub was being put on the market. Mrs Hawtin spent the first 21 years of her life living at the pub and her niece, Violet Mowbray, later worked behind the taps.

MORE than 200 residents signed a petition calling for Severn Trent's sewerage plant in Ledbury to be closed down. They said they were fed up with smells coming from the plant.

ORGANISERS of the Bromyard Folk Festival were braced to make a loss after the fuel crisis hit attendance, although all but two acts were able to attend.

FRIENDS of Ledbury Community Hospital announced a £250,000 donation to provide a state-of-the-art physiotherapy gym at the new Community Hospital.

October

MALVERN firm English Braids shared in the success of Olympic gold medallist Ben Ainslie. The firm had supplied ropes to the Laser class sailor - and the silver and bronze medallists from Brazil and Australia.

A £3 million scheme to expand Upton-upon-Severn Marina was announced. The ten-year plan, which involves the creation of a second basin, had the potential of attracting thousands more visitors the town, said owners Walton Marine.

MALVERN grandmother Sandra Gardener had a special reason for tuning into Coronation Street. Granddaughter Annabelle Tarrant was making her debut as Curly and Raquel's daughter.

FORMER Malvern Mayor Adrian Ward ignited a row over the future of the Town Council by calling for a referendum on whether it should be abolished. He questioned whether it provided value for money.

A mother-of-three was killed after she was in collision with a lorry on the A4103 at Fromes Hill. Tributes to 37-year-old Zania Wood came from members of local bands, who praised her work in organising gigs at a local pub and charity festivals.

A LEDBURY firm got former Formula One and Indycar World Champion Nigel Mansell driving for them. European Formula Racing, sister firm of European Aviation, signed Mr Mansell to drive corporate hospitality packages in specially built two-seater Formula One cars.

BROMYARD fundraiser Keith Lane announced the end of his annual Big 'Un fundraising dances as he wanted to try something new. The Big 'Un 5 had just raised £973 for the County Air Ambulance.

AFTER-SCHOOL club Urchins announced it was interested in taking over the redundant Ledbury Community Hospital after the construction of the new facility. The group was looking to Lottery funding to make the proposal a reality.

November

THE worst flooding since 1947 hit Upton-upon-Severn and villages near the rivers Severn and Teme. The Army were called in to help support the emergency services, part of the A38 was washed away and Malvern Hills District Council prepared shelters ready for a major evacuation. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and the Duke of Gloucester both came to see the scale of the devastation.

A ROBBER was being hunted after holding up the Malvern Link Texaco garage with a knife. He fled empty-handed after the attendant rang police.

MALVERN soldier Darren Collins was killed in a road accident at Bromsgrove just a week after his 23rd birthday and on the eve of his return to duty in Northern Ireland.

AN author claimed to have uncovered new evidence about the famous Bravo murder in 1876. James Ruddick said he would publish the details in a book next year. One of the suspects in the poisoning case was Malvern water cure pioneer Dr James Manby Gully, who had a relationship with the wife of the victim, Charles Bravo.

LEDBURY Town Council gave its formal backing to plans to save the home of the football club. The deeds to the ground, behind the Full Pitcher, are in the hands of a developer and Ledbury Town FC has been looking to buy them back.

HEREFORDSHIRE Council said it was looking to invest £400,000 in new facilities at the John Masefield High School. The authority said Ledbury is rapidly growing and there is pressure for more capacity at the school.

SINGING star David Essex dropped a hint that his daughter will marry at Eastnor Castle next year. He was chatting during a meal at the Royal Oak, Ledbury, en route to a gig in Wales, asking what rooms were available.

A CAMPAIGN to tackle drug and alcohol abuse among young people in Ledbury was being planned, including provision for a specialist worker from the Drugs Advisory Service for Herefordshire (DASH).

December

A ROW broke out over the quality of Great Malvern's Christmas lights display with critics dubbing them the worst ever. The Town Council responded by saying the display is the basis of bigger and better things in the future and pointed to the public appeal for funds to improve them.

COLWALL farmers David and Ivy Bishop completed a splendid grand slam of titles for their lambs, winning the overall supreme championship title at all four major shows, the National Fatstock Show at Stafford, Royal Bath and West Winter Show, Royal Smithfield Show and the Welsh Winter Fair.

HANLEY Swan won the business award in the fourth Great Britain Village of the Year competition for its range of businesses serving the community, particular mention being made of the Village Stores and Post Office.

CHRISTMAS was full of good cheer for several organisations - Dyson Perrins C of E High School secured a £2.3 million Government grant to improve its facilities and Malvern Age Concern was given £185,000 from the National Lottery to launch a rural service.

STOKE Lacy resident John Caiger returned from the Ukraine having continued his advisory work with the Government sponsored British Executive Service Overseas. Mr Caiger has helped set up a clothing factory he hopes will provide work for 300 people.

WHILE the River Severn devastated communities in Worcestershire, it was flash flooding which hit roads around Herefordshire. On one day, December 7, 14 times the average daily rainfall for December fell, blocking roads around Ledbury and the villages.

VILLAGERS in Eastnor announced plans to restore the Victorian Temperance Fountain for their Millennium project giving people the chance to enjoy a drink from the facility for the first time in at least half a century.

A CAMPAIGN to push on with the completion of the Ledbury by-pass was launched, its supporters saying it will ease current and future traffic problems and aid the development of the Bromyard Road industrial estate.