Malvern Link

Malvern Link is an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, England to the north and east of Great Malvern. The centres of Malvern Link and Great Malvern are separated by Link Common, an area of open land that is statutorily protected by the Malvern Hills Conservators. In 1900 Malvern Link Urban District, which had been formed only five years earlier, merged with Great Malvern to become Malvern Town. The population of Link in 2011 was 6,155.LocationThe main urban area is to the north of the Worcester Road and the Link Common that marks a sharply defined boundary on the south of the settlement between the railway station and the area's western limit at Newtown Road in Link Top. The urban development takes a gentle transition through the neighbourhoods of Upper Howsell and Lower Howsell to the farms and communities of Leigh Sinton in the north and Newland and Madresfield in the west. To the south along the main axis of Pickersleigh Road, an unbroken built up area merges seamlessly into Barnards Green, a suburb of the former independent town of Great Malvern.HistoryThe name Malvern Link seems to have been in use for some time: "The many local placenames... which first appear in thirteenth century records were probably current a full century earlier.... By 1276... there was, therefore, a probable population of at least 200 scattered in the old hamlets of Baldenhall, Guarlford, Poolbrook and the Link..." Malvern Link was the key site of the Romano-British pottery industry that produced Severn Valley Ware. There are several kilns in the Malvern Link-Newland area and numerous water-filled clay pits, now lined with trees.