Location: on the roadside between the Wyche Cutting and Earnslaw Quarry
Description: an accessible wayside watering hole, now disappeared

The toll gate in Wyche Road was known as the Ledbury-terrace gate, and in 1865 was run by Andrew Lampet. In his lively and entertaining Life at the Water Cure of 1846 Richard Lane records how one morning, after two water cures that relieved his painful knee, he walked southwards from Great Malvern. 'I walked through the Wyche, drinking at the turnpike spring; then proceeded to the Willow Spring.'[1]

The bank with its spring spring was quarried away and the site used for a loading hopper for the quarrying operations. The old toll house was used by the quarry company and survived until the late 1930s. Today the site is the access to the conservators' car park.

Slightly further down the road there is a much larger house built on the roadside in 1889, formerly called Kerry but now known as The Toll House. It has no connection with the above toll house.[2]


Illustrations:
1. Wyche Turnpike Spring 1846 from Lane's Life at the Water Cure.
2. The same scene as picture 1 but when quarrying was rife in the 20th century. (courtesy Malvern Hills Conservators)

Footnotes:
[1] Lane, Richard, Life at the Water Cure, Longman, Brown Green & Longmans (1846), p.74.
[2] Personal communication with owner 2009.

The map alongside is a small section of our more comprehensive map of the area. For the complete map together with a description and history of this site see "Celebrated Springs of the Malvern Hills" (2012).

 

 

 

 

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Celebrated Springs of 
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