Journal news editor TONY DONNELLY takes a walk around Pershore and finds, thank to some expert local knowledge, quite a few surprises...

Pershore, according to a newly-updated booklet, has been called "one of the 51 towns in the British Isles so splendid and so precious that the ultimate responsibility for them should be a national concern".

Really? When I drove through the town for the first time two weeks ago I was less than convinced.

All that was to change, however, when, clutching a copy of the recently revised Pershore Town Walk, I began to look at the place from a different angle - on foot.

The booklet was updated by local resident Geoffrey Whatmore, a former librarian with the Daily Mirror and later the BBC, who regards himself as a newcomer to Pershore, having only lived there for the past 15 years.

Taking his advice, I began the walk in Broad Street, the hub of the town where there was once a shambles (meat market). Now the square provides a free car park for locals and visitors.

Regency and Georgian architecture abound, and although the Royal Three Tuns Hotel (once visited by Victoria before she ascended the throne) may have disappeared, the faade has been retained and now houses the Royal Arcade shopping centre.

The town has a prosperous merchant, John Hunter, to thank for the Georgian homes, some with Venetian or Palladian windows, built around 1810.

It is to Pershore Abbey, regarded by many as the jewel in its crown, that the walk takes the visitor next.

Founded in 689, "the pre-Conquest history was a chequered sequence of acts of royal patronage and Danish desecration".

In the late 10th century it was run by the Benedictines, but shortly thereafter was seized and later made over to the newly founded Abbey of Westminster.

Viewed in its now serene setting next to the (now deconsecrated) St Andrew's Church, it is somehow difficult to envisage the tumult it must have witnessed over the past thousand years.

From the Abbey, the walk takes visitors to the bottom of Newlands where an imposing half-timbered building, believed to have been the almonry where the monks dispensed charity to the poor, has been faithfully restored by the Worcestershire Historic Buildings Preservation Trust.

Back at St Andrew's, the booklet is enthusiastic about the town's most recent attraction, a walkway through the churchyard and garden via the new Town Hall to the Riverside.

Mr Whatmore is particularly enthusiastic about this.

"It is a sign that the town is still evolving," he said. "When the council moved into the town hall, which was formerly the post office, they opened up this land which had hitherto been privately owned.

"It's been a great boost to the town and local people are very pleased with it."

There is much, much more to see on the Pershore Town Walk and the booklet, which retails at £2.50 and is available from the visitor centre and a number of local shops, is an invaluable companion, especially to the first-time visitor.

Produced by Pershore Civic Society, the guide sells around 100-150 copies every year, mainly to tourists. (I suspect many locals, too, would benefit from following the walk through its pages.)

A week later, I had occasion to drive through Pershore again. Had it not been for the walk, my first impression would have remained - a quiet town with not much to offer.

And how wrong is that?