Malvern Hills District Footpath Society is a walking group for all ages and abilities. Whilst Malvern is in our name, it doesn’t mean that we walk exclusively on the Hills. In fact, we provide guided walks throughout the Malvern area, travelling up to 20-30 miles away if there’s a walk we wish to do.
Our formation
The Objectives of Malvern Hills District Footpath Society
When the society was formed in 1973, the main aim, other than walking together, was to look after and improve the footpaths in the then Malvern Hills District. In those days it was difficult to walk more than a couple of miles without encountering a severe problem such as missing footbridges, barbed wire, unusable stiles, severe vegetation under and overgrowth and no fingerpost or other way marking.
‘To promote the enjoyment and preservation of all Rights of Way and to foster an understanding of their place in the countryside’ is still an objective of our constitution.
We have helped to improve footpaths considerably in the Malvern Hills area over the years by:
- Reporting defects and obstructions to the highways authorities
- Using footpaths frequently
- Carrying out voluntary clearance and maintenance work
The Society hopes that you will support our aims and perhaps join us on our walks.
Affiliations
The Society is affiliated to the Ramblers Association and is a member of the Council for the Protection of Rural England and The Open Spaces Society.
New members are always very welcome! The annual fee is only £5, which covers all types of walks during the year.
Today things are much improved and one can now generally expect to take a 10 mile walk in the District without meeting major problems. In the past the MHDFS contributed to this improvement in many ways including fitting, under Local Authority approval, up to forty pieces of footpath furniture such as stiles, plank bridges, gates etc per year.
This activity has reduced in intensity recently, but over the years the Society has contributed by:
- Commenting on about 150 planning applications that affect footpaths each year
- Reporting about 400 (now less serious) problems annually
- Liaising with Local Authorities and other organisations on footpath policy and day-to-day issues
- And, most importantly, checking the footpath network by walking paths.
Social Events
We organise various social events throughout the year. These have included skittles evenings, evening slide shows with speaker, annual dinners and visits to local places of interest following walks.
For many years we have also organised walking holidays. These include a spring coach holiday and an autumn self-drive holiday.
Since the covid pandemic our social events have significantly reduced, but we are in the process of starting to build these up again.
Support for the Air Ambulance
For several years now, it has been a tradition amongst the Society’s members to donate their small change to Midlands Air Ambulance. Unfortunately, along with other walking clubs we have, on occasion, had to use this service. We collect for them on most of the weekly walks.
Over the years, members have been invited to visit our local air ambulance based at Strensham; the last visit was in September 2017. We are always made very welcome and invited to look around, look at the aircraft and meet the crew.
We never know when we are likely to need this invaluable service, which receives no Government or national lottery funding. Midlands Air Ambulance is the busiest Air Ambulance organisation in the UK and averages 2,000 call outs each year (2017 figure).
Contribution towards this fund is voluntary.