Hanley Swan Village is situated close to the Malvern Hills and the town of Malvern and Upton-upon-Severn.
The population of Hanley Swan and the nearby village of Hanley Castle is about 2000 and sits in the heart of Worcestershire.
Hanley Swan village boasts a Village Green with 2 fine oak trees, a top quality Village Inn The Swan, award winning butcher and friendly village stores. The focal point however of this lovely village has to be the beautiful Village Pond and many resident ducks. A huge amount of voluntary work goes into maintaining the pond through a brilliant team effort over the years. Neil Verlander was instrumental in making this happen in 2009 and has lived in the village for over 30 years with his partner Gigi.
Hanley Swan Village was very proud to win the 2009 Calor Hertfordshire and Worcestershire Village of the Year competition; a heat of the national village of the year competition and the village was also listed in the ‘Top 30 Villages in the UK’!
Below is a excerpt from an article in the local Malvern Gazette featuring Pauline Phipps; owner of the local butcher.
Town is in top 30 cool places in UK
MALVERN is among the coolest places in Britain to live, according to a national newspaper article published this week. The town was considered trendy enough by judges from the Times to rank an impressive 13th in its list of the 30 coolest places to live.
- Hanley Swan and Hanley Castle were in the top 30 best villages in Britain.
- Malvern – The spa town deep in the Malvern Hills has an affluent feel with its fine Regency buildings are a reminder of when fashionable ladies would take the waters.
- Sir Edward Elgar lived here and a festival of music, poetry and film is held here each autumn
Meanwhile, for Hanley residents its accolade came as no surprise. “I think it’s lovely news,” said Pauline Phipps, owner of RA Phipps butchers in the centre of Hanley Swan. “Hanley Swan is well deserving of it. It’s a lovely village.“It hasn’t seen a lot of change in the last few years. It’s a character village with a traditional green and pond. “We do live in one of the best areas in Britain.We are lucky.” Mrs Phipps’ shop was mentioned by newspaper as one of the reasons the area is “great”, along with the fishmonger’s and “two well-regarded pubs”. The paper points out that The Hanleys are “often spoken of together for their picturesque streets and tight-knit community”.Top of the list was West Meon in Hampshire, while Castle Combe in Wiltshire and Chew Magna in Somerset completed the top three.
Read the entire article HERE
The pond looks lovely today. I was born in 1948 at Blackmoor army camp up the road. One night after a ‘do’ at MEre
brook camp,my dad, a LITTLE the worse for wear, rode home on his BIKE. It was very dark and he crashed into the pOND he arrived home dripping WET and weedy. My mum was furious and the incident became a family anecdote. When I was 2years old we moved up the road to Wood Farm camp. Mr Phipps used to deliver us meat. He had a 3 wheel van that my older SISTERS cheekily called ‘ the flying VAN’ We used to get VEGETABLES and flowers from a LADY in the village called miss channel. .MY Dad was posted to Kent when I was nearly 5. I have a surprising amount of memories of this lovely area. I missed IT for a long time. My family name was LOVE. I still live in Kent