Dedicated cycle provision - existing
There’s now a separate page on planning of new routes. The perennial topic of a potential Malvern to Worcester cycle route has its own space too (note – nothing exists on the ground yet apart from a fancy bridge on the edge of Worcester!).
If you want to find out about existing routes to ride on the Hills or ideas for recreational cycling, please see the MalvernTrail website.
Cycle Paths
What’s available to use in Malvern.
- Open Street Map is probably the best online tool to see the layout of these routes. Select the Cycle Map layer.
A shared path across Link Common from the railway station to Pickersleigh Road. A lack of maintenance since installation means that this is now quite narrow (overgrown by grass). Please be extra considerate when meeting pedestrians. Part of local route 9.
2. Retail park and Townsend Way
A separated track alongside Townsend Way/North End Lane is rather spoilt by all the road junctions, with no priority for cyclists or pedestrians. Patience is needed in particular when negotiating the roundabout exit to the retail park – an overgrown hedge can obstruct the view here too.
Push button traffic lights just up from the Newland roundabout take you over Worcester Road into the ‘Royals’ estate via a short bit of cycle/pedestrian path to Gloucester Close. There are two ways to reach this crossing from Townsend Way/retail park – the safer option avoids going through the busy Greggs forecourt but is easy to miss! A gallery of captioned pics of this end of the route to come soon.
This route is part of local route 10, while the North End Lane section of the track (western end towards Pickersleigh Road) is also part of the NCN Route 46 described below, extending largely on road via Orford Way, Sherrards Green Road and Pound Bank Road to near a pedestrian signalled crossing at Barnards Green – over to Geraldine Road to reach Chase School and the Science Park. NCN 46 currently ends at the lane alongside the latter, with some mapping showing a non-NCN on-road extension via Court Road to Great Malvern station.
A short section of shared use path skirts the Malvern Cricket Club grounds. This enables getting from Church Road through to Summerfield Road/Queen Elizabeth Road, and then via Duke of Edinburgh Way and Gloucester Close to the retail park/Townsend Way route above. (It is possible to avoid most of Duke of Edinburgh Way by a devious quieter route.)
National Cycle Network
NCN Route 46 from Abergavenny to Hereford should be extended ultimately via Malvern and on to Worcester – see Sustrans info (or GPS Routes web page). The section from the city to Droitwich and Bromsgrove is already on the map. There are bits of cycle route in Malvern shown as 46 (originally part of route 45).
Sustrans plans for National Cycle Network route 45 for the area will link Stourport, Droitwich, Worcester, Tewkesbury and Gloucester (after a change from the original outline). Routes 45 and 46 connect in Worcester.
You can see the network on Ordnance Survey maps – switch the NCN layer on via the ‘Map style’ button (left).
NCN map key for reference:
Cycle and pedestrian bridges
Both Hereford and Worcester acquired cycle/pedestrian bridges as part of a national ‘Connect2’ project from Sustrans (funded by the People’s £50 Million Lottery Giveaway, Dec. 2007).
In Worcester, this was the “Severn Bridge at Diglis Lock and Link to Powick”. See Diglis Bridge on Discover Worcestershire, and Birmingham’s PushBikes explains why they think the bridge is a great facility. It links to more recent Hams Way bridge via various bits of path (which can flood in winter) and short on-road routes. This should eventually be the start of a route to Malvern (NCN 46). For more on Hams Way bridge see the Malvern to Worcester route planning page, or there’s a pic on January 2021 news item.
In Hereford the Connect2 scheme is the bridge which crosses the River Wye from south east of the town centre to Rotherwas (near sewage works). The city to Rotherwas cycle route has its own Facebook page! Also see Herefordshire Council’s cycle routes and paths web page.