The Malvern Hills Conservators today announced exciting plans for St Ann's Well.
Following the recent restoration of the garden and approach, the interior of the building will now be restored, emphasising its Victorian character, and the Octagon Room above the current café will be opened as a Visitor Information Centre. The café opening hours will also be extended, so that refreshments will be available 7 days a week from Easter to September and at weekends during the rest of the year.
Director Ian Rowat said, "This is a very exciting development, which will enable us to offer much better facilities to local people and visitors alike. For a long time, we have wanted to provide a centre where visitors and residents can find out more about this unique and beautiful landscape. The 1995 Malvern Hills Act prevents us from rebuilding the popular café at the Beacon and providing a visitor facility there; St Ann's Well gives us the opportunity to realise our aim closer to the town. With its position half way up the hillside, St Ann's Well is the logical link between Great Malvern and the Malvern Hills and our proposals include various initiatives to encourage visitors to the hills down into the town centre".
"To carry this vision forward, we need to go beyond providing a commercial café facility; therefore the Conservators will be taking St Ann's Well back under their own management from March 2010. By taking the management in-house, the information centre, toilets and café can be open around visitors' needs rather than commercial needs and staff can be trained to act as ambassadors not just for the Conservators' work, but for the local area".
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