3-043-782 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Malvern Monster Beacon - sketched near Madresfield, 1856. Illustration of a sketch by Cuthbert Bede, '...a view of the Malvern range...it was intended to have been a simple bonfire to commemorate the lighting of Malvern with gas; and, therefore, only locally interesting. But the project increased in importance as it became more widely known...as the inland position of the "Worcestershire Beacon" - which, as being the highest portion of the Malvern range, was fixed upon as the best spot for the bonfire - and its elevation of 1444 feet above the level of the sea, made it a very advantageous position for scientific purposes, it was at length decided by the promoters of the bonfire scheme that a beacon should be raised of such dimensions as should make a fire sufficiently brilliant for accurate observation at great distances...Hundreds of visitors poured into Malvern, and a far larger number took up favourable positions in the vicinity...The fierce wind, instead of allowing the flames to mount perpendicularly, drove them out horizontally with all the fury of a blast-furnace... there were the spectators massed in dark groups, lighted up with fiery reflections; and, over all, was the deep blue sky studded with silvery stars'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.