Malvern, Worcestershire

This article is about the civil parish and its environs. For the town centre see Great Malvern

Coordinates: 52°06′28″N 2°19′30″W / 52.1077°N 2.3250°W / 52.1077; -2.3250

Malvern
Malvern shown within Worcestershire
Population	28,749 (2001 Census)
OS grid reference	SO786459
- London	121.3m
Parish	Malvern
District	Malvern Hills
Shire county	Worcestershire
Region	West Midlands
Constituent country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	MALVERN
Postcode district	WR14
Dialling code	01684
Police	West Mercia
Fire	Hereford and Worcester
Ambulance	West Midlands
European Parliament	West Midlands
UK Parliament	West Worcestershire
List of places: UK • England • Worcestershire

Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England. It includes the major centre of population Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, together with many suburbs and areas often collectively referred to as The Malverns. Several of these settlements are separated by large tracts of open common land. The civil parish of Malvern Town Council has a population of 28,749 (2001 Census^[1]).

Malvern is the largest town in the parliamentary constituency of West Worcestershire. As of May 2005 it is represented by Sir Michael Spicer. Malvern is also the administrative seat of the area governed by Malvern Hills District Council (MHDC) and lies adjacent to the Malvern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The MHDC also governs several neighbouring towns^[2] and a great many villages.

Contents 1 Town centre 2 Suburbs 3 Early history 4 Recent history 5 Governance 6 Demography 7 Population development 7.1 Growth 8 Economy 8.1 Employment and Scientific Research 8.1.1 QinetiQ 8.2 Malvern Water 9 Culture 9.1 Architecture 9.2 Music 9.3 Dramatic Arts 9.3.1 Mainstream Theatre 9.3.2 Fringe Festival 9.4 Malvern in Literature 10 Churches in Malvern 11 Health Facilities 12 Transport 13 Education 13.1 High Schools 13.2 Public Schools 13.3 Further Education 14 Health facilites 15 Leisure 16 Sport 17 Notable people 18 References 19 Bibliography 20 External links 20.1 Administration 20.2 Geography and layout 20.3 History and culture 20.4 Education 20.5 Tourism 20.6 News

Town centre

The town centre comprises two main streets, the steep Church Street and the perpendicular Bellevue Terrace, a relatively flat north-south extension of the (A449).
In the heart of the town is a statue of Edward Elgar the composer, who lived in the town, while other statuary is dedicated to Malvern water. Among the many shops are two large supermarkets. Since their construction and that of other retail parks outside the town centre, most of the traditional high street shops in the town are now tea-rooms, health food shops, specialist cafés, banks, building societies, second-hand books shops, charity shops, law firms, and a very large number of real estate agents.
On the Worcester to Hereford line is the Victorian Great Malvern railway station, a listed example of classical Victorian railway architecture close to the former nearby Imperial Hotel which was the town's largest during its heyday as a spa town. In 1893 following the sharp decline in Malvern's importance as a spa, the imposing Victorian building which housed the hotel became the Malvern Girls' College now called Malvern St James.

Suburbs

Besides the town centre of Great Malvern, Malvern comprises a number of neighbourhoods and other named places.
Some are within the civil parish of Malvern Town, and all are in the surrounding urban area. The names and locations of these suburbs are in general usage but, except where some of the outer suburbs correspond to civil parishes, Malvern as a name on its own is unparished and is informally defined. Malvern's rapid urbanisation during the latter half of the 19th century spread eastwards from the town centre on the steep flank of the Worcestershire Beacon, engulfing manors and farms in the immediate area rather than adopting complete villages. It was often the farms, such as Pickersleigh, that gave their names to many of the new neigbourhoods and today's housing estates.

Early history

The name Malvern probably comes from the ancient British language meaning 'Bare-Hill', the nearest modern equivalent being the Welsh moelfryn (bald hill). It has been known as Malferna (11th century.); Malverne (12th century); Much Malvern (16-17th century). ^[3] Ancient legends have it that the British chieftain Caractacus took his last stand against the Romans on the Malvern Hills close to Malvern, but this has been disputed in modern times.
The town developed around its 11th-century priory, the remains of which make up much of Great Malvern Priory, now a large parish church, and the Abbey Gateway that houses today's Malvern Museum.

Whilst there is no doubt that Malvern evolved around the Benedictine monastery and its monks, several theories explain the actual founding of the religious community. Legend tells that the settlement began following the murder of St. Werstan, a monk of Deerhurst, who fled from the Danes and took refuge in the woods of Malvern. A hermitage had been established there before the Norman Conquest ^[4] .
The ancient stained glass window^[5] in the north choir clerestory of Malvern Priory church depicts the legend of St Werstan, with details of his vision, the consecration of his chapel, Edward the Confessor granting the charter, and Werstan's martyrdom. ^[6][7]

The legend has erroneously been dismissed by some historians as monastic mythology.^[8] However, in their 2006 book The Illumination of St. Werstan the Martyr ^[8] Cora Weaver and Bruce Osborne re-examine the legend of St Werstan and conclude that he was the original martyr.^[8]

The first prior was Aldwyn, who had been made a monk by St. Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, was apparently the first to settle here,^[4] founding the monastery at Malvern on the bishop's advice instead of making an intended pilgramage to Jerusalem and by 1135 the monastery included thirty monks. Aldwyn was succeeded by Walcher, an astronomer, and philosopher from Lorraine.^[4]whose gravestone inside the priory church records details that the the priory arose in 1085 from a hermitage endowed by Edward the Confessor,

The Worcester Monastic Annals and the 'Vita Wulfstani', a biography of the life of St Wulfstan by his chaplain in 1110 (translated from the Anglo Saxon by William of Malmesbury, 1125) also tell how Wulstan encouraged a hermit named Aldwin to found a Monastery in the 'wilderness of Malvern'.^[9]
An 18th century document in the ^[10] states that in the 18th year of William's kingship (1083?), a priory was dedicated to St Mary the Virgin. W. Page in his Victoria County Histories gives an account of the foundation of the monastery ^[11]. It describes how a hermit Aldwyn, who lived in the reign of Edward the Confessor, had petitioned the Earl of Gloucester for the original site (of the Priory) in the wood, and cites his source as Gervase of Canterbury, Mappa Mundi(Rolls ser.)

Recent history

The parish of Great Malvern formerly included the hamlet of Guarlford and the chapelry of Newland, and stretched from the River Severn on the east to the Malvern Hills on the west. Guarlford was formed into a separate civil parish in 1894. Under the Local Government Act of 1894 urban district councils were created for Malvern and Malvern Link. By 1900 however, the two councils were merged, absorbing parts of neighbouring parishes to create a town of six wards under the Malvern Urban District Council.

Malvern is a famous spa, known for its bottled water since 1622 at the Holy Well and later from other spouts and sources. Dr. James Manby Gully made the "water cure" popular in the early 19th century. Several large hotels and many of the large villas in Malvern date from its heyday as a residential spa.

Many smaller hotels and guest houses were built between about 1842 and 1875 and by 1855 there were already 95 hotels and boarding houses and by 1865 over a quarter of the town's 800 houses were boarding and lodging houses. ^[12][13] Most were in Great Malvern (the town centre) and there were others in Malvern Wells , North Malvern, and West Malvern.

Great Malvern Station opened on 25 May 1860, a Friday start to a weekend public holiday, and received a massive 10,000 passengers from all the newly opened stations on the line, and throughout June to September of that year day trips were frequent, filling the area with 'the most curious specimens of the British shopkeeper and artisan on an outing'.^[12] In addition to Malvern's newly found fame as a spa, fully exploiting its rail connections, factories from as far Manchester were organising day trips for their employees, often attracting as many as 5,000 visitors a day. In 1865 a public meeting of residents denounced the rising rail fares (now twice that of other lines) that were exploiting the tourism industry, and demanded a limitation to the number of excursion trains. The arrival of the railway also enabled the delivery of coal in large quantities, which accelerated the the area's popularity as a winter resort.^[12] Fearing that Malvern would become the 'Metropolis of Hydrotherapy', a Malvern Hills Act was secured in 1884 and later Acts empowered the Conservators to acquire prevent further encroachment and by 1925 they had bought much of the manorial wastelands. ^[12]

By the end of the 19th century, the popularity of the water cure had declined to the extent that many hotels were already being converted into private boarding schools and rest homes, and education became the basis of Malvern's economy.^[12]. By 1865 the town already had 17 single-gender privates schools, and by 1885 they numbered 25. Spa towns were well suited for schools due to their well established attractive environment and the possibility of children being able to travel unaccompanied with their trunks by rail to their boarding schools.

Governance

Malvern Hills is an administrative district of the County of Worcestershire, and comprises 54 civil parishes and 21 electoral council wards.^[14]The six Malvern Town Council electoral wards at the district level of local government generally ignore the accepted names of the neighbourhoods and suburbs they contain, and use invented names: Chase, Dyson Perrins, Link, North Malvern, Pickersleigh, and Priory, and correspond to the limits of the civil parish of Malvern Town, (ward 06 of the Malvern Hills District).^[15]

Demography

As of the 2001 UK census, Malvern had a total population of 28,749. For every 100 females, there were 91.7 males. The average household size was 2.4.^[16] Of those aged 16–74 in Malvern, 48.1% had no academic qualifications or at least one GCSE,^[17] above the figures for all of the Malvern Hills local government district (39.7%) and England (45.5%).^[18] According to the census, 2.3% were unemployed and 35.0% were economically inactive.^[17] 19.7% of the population were under the age of 16 and 11.5% were aged 75 and over; the mean age of the people of the civil parish was 41.5. 66.8% of residents described their health as "good", similar to the average of 69.1% for the wider district.^[18][19]

Population development

The area remained a village and cluster of manors and farms until the early 1800s, when the 'taking of the water' in Malvern became popularised by Dr. Wall in 1756. By the 1820s the Baths and the Pump Room were opened and Dr James Wilson and Dr Gully 1842 opened up water cure establishments in the town centre.

By the middle of the 19th century with the arrival of the railway, bath houses, and other establishments catering for the health tourists had flourished. By the early 20th century Malvern had rapidly developed from a small village centred around its priory, to a bustling town with many large hotels, and impressive Victorian and Edwardian country villas of the newly rich citizenry of the the Industrial Revolution from nearby Birmingham and the Black Country.

Malvern experienced a further boost to its population in 1942 when a large government research facility was relocated from near the coastal town of Swanage the south of England to Malvern for safety from air raids and espionage during World War II. In the early 1950s several large and (at that time) modern housing estates were built in Malvern on similar lines to council estates to provide accommodation for the 2,000 or so staff and their families. A significant proportion of the population of Malvern today is comprised of former employees and their successive generations, its previously attached military contingent, and the present staff of the establishment now known as QinetiQ.

Malvern had already become an overspill for the nearby city of Worcester, and the new motorways constructed in the early 1960s brought the industrial Midlands within commuting distance by car and with it, the construction of large private housing developments. Malvern continues to swell, as increasingly more farmland especially on the line between the villages of Guarlford and Newland is turned over to new housing projects since the beginning of the 21st century, creating brand new communities and suburbs yet to be named.

Growth

The population of Malvern experienced a dramatic increase from the mid 19th century. Due to frequent merging of parishes and changes in boudaries, accurate figures based on specific areas are not available

• 1563 : was comprised of 105 families (probably what is now the town centre area with nearby farms and manors.)^[3]
• 1741 : had sixty houses (probably what is now the town centre area)^[3]
• 1801 : 819^[12]
• 1819 : 2,768 (1819 census - probably what is now the town centre area)^[3]
• 1851 : 3,771 (probably including the former ecclesiastical parishes of Guarlford and Newland, and the settlement of Poolbrook)^[3]
• 1871 : 7,605 (probably including the former ecclesiastical parishes of Gualford and Newland, and the settlement of Poolbrook)^[3]
• 1911 : 16,514 reflects the 1900 merging of the Malvern and Malvern Link urban district councils^[12]
• 2001 : 28,749 (includes the wards covered by the current Town Council civil parish)

Economy

Education is one of the largest fields of employment in Malvern. Private education is especially represented by two famous public schools, Malvern College founded in 1865, and Malvern Girls College now renamed Malvern St. James after its 2006 merger with St. James's School. There are also several other private day and boarding schools. Famous people who were educated at these schools include Jeremy Paxman, A.J.P. Taylor, C. S. Lewis, Denholm Elliott, Barbara Cartland, and Aleister Crowley.

Automobiles have been constructed in Malvern since 1910 ^[20] by The Morgan Motor Company, one of the world's longest existing private constructors of series-built automobiles. The Morgan Motor Car is a traditional sports car roadster and over the years has become a 'cult' vehicle, exported all over the world.

Pipe organ building has been carried out in Malvern since the famous company of Nicholson Organs was founded by John Nicholson in 1841. The Nicholson company is one of the most innovative in the field of organ technology and the firm's organs can be found in Worcester, Gloucester and Birmingham (UK) Cathedrals, and abroad in Madrid, Hong Kong and Long Island, U.S.A.^[21]

Glassware is produced by Chance Brothers, an early pioneer of glass making technology, in their factory in Malvern next door to the Morgan Motor works.

Agriculture: Malvern is the centre for a significant agricultural industry in the area immediately surrounding the town, essentially comprising mixed farming (livestock, dairy, cereals, and market gardening). Sheep graze on the hills immediately to the west of the town centre, and on the common land that separates the various urban centres. Significant crops are fruit (apples, cider apples, pears, damsons, plums), vegetables, and the monoculture of hops and Christmas trees.

The 70 acre Three Counties Showground operated by the Three Counties Agricultural Society, a registered charity^[22] a few miles to the south of Malvern on the road to the town of Upton upon Severn (part of the Malvern District), has been the venue for the famous annual Three Counties Show held each year in June for over fifty years. While traditionally representing the three counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, the show which can be traced right back to 1797,^[23] attracts an average of 93,000 visitors from all parts of the country over its three-day event, and with around 600 trade stands and exhibitions it almost doubles the town's local population.^[24] Statistics^[25] show it to be among the country's most important agricultural shows and events, and according to reports, is the biggest regular event of the year of any kind in the Herefordshire and Worcestershire region. ^[26][27]It also opens the horticultural season each year by hosting the Royal Horticultural Society's Spring Gardening Show^[28][29], followed by many other events throughout the year including other regular gardening shows.

Employment and Scientific Research

Apart from working in its hospitality industry, schools, local services, and a modern commercial estate for small factories and warehouses and its nearby retail park, most town residents commute either to the nearby city of Worcester or to the vast agglomeration of Birmingham - Wolverhampton at less than forty minutes by train or motorway. The major single employer is QinetiQ, a scientific research facility. Outside the town, many people are employed in the important farming community.

QinetiQ

Through a succession of renaming and changes in scientific focus^[30], with about 2,300 employees, the centre has remained the largest single employer in the Malvern area to the present day. Primarily concerned with defence technology, some of which is top secret, the organisation has been administered over the years by several government ministries. Notable major contributions to global science and technology include RADAR, the cavity magnetron, and liquid crystal displays (LCD). It has been said that World War II was won on the playing fields of Malvern, home of the cavity magnetron; from a building that still exists today^[31] that housed a radio listening post in the hamlet of Guarlford near the TRE South Site, TRE was also instrumental in providing the RAF with the location of Peenemünde, the V2 rocket base in Germany that that was subsequently bombed by the RAF in the World War II Operation Crossbow.

In 2001 the facility was partly privatised (QinetiQ) to become a world leader in electronics and telecommunications research while a part was retained by the Ministry of Defence to become Dstl, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. Malvern's Dstl contingent has since closed down with a tiny number of the few remaining staff moving to other Dstl sites.

Different generations of Malvern people often still refer to the establishment by any of its former names.

Malvern Water

The Malvern Water became famous for containing "nothing at all". It was the main reason for Malvern becoming a spa town and has formed a part of both local and national culture since Queen Elizabeth I made a point of drinking it in public in the 16th century, and Queen Victoria refused to travel without it. It is the only bottled water used by Queen Elizabeth II, which she takes on her travels around the world.^[32] Millions of litres of Malvern Water are bottled annually by Schweppes in a factory near Malvern and distributed worldwide.

Culture

Architecture

The town centre and its environs are graced by many fine examples of Victorian and Edwardian villas and hotels. Many of the houses were built during the Industrial Revolution, and Malvern's boom years as a spa town, by wealthy families from the nearby Birmingham area. Many of the villas have since been converted to apartments, while some of the smaller hotels are now retirement homes. Much architecture and statuary in the town centre is dedicated to Malvern Water, including the St. Anne's Well, which is housed in a building dating from 1815^[33][34]. The drinking spout, Malvhina, by the sculptor Rose Garrard, was unveiled on 4 September 1998. The Enigma Fountain, also by Garrard, was unveiled by Prince Andrew in 2000. The Imperial Hotel in red brick with stone dressings that became the Malvern Girls College after the collapse of the spa industry, is one of the largest buildings in Malvern and was built in 1860 by the architect E W Elmslie who also designed the Great Malvern railway station and Whitbourne Hall, in Herefordshire. It was first hotel to be lit by incandescent gas. It was equipped with all types of baths and brine was brought specially by rail from Droitwich. ^[35]

Music

Sir Edward Elgar, the famous British composer and Master of the King's Musick lived much of his life around Malvern and is buried in Little Malvern cemetery. There is evidence to suggest^{[citation needed]} that Elgar composed part of the Enigma Variations in All Saint's, the parish church of Malvern Wells, but his offer of the original manuscript of his oratorio The Apostles, as a gift to the church, was refused by the Anglican church authorities because Elgar was a Roman Catholic and the oratorio was heavily based in that tradition. Land of Hope and Glory, set to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, and often used as a national anthem for England,^[36] was first performed in the Wyche School next to the church in the presence of Elgar. A statue of Elgar stands gazing over Great Malvern from Belle Vue Terrace in the town centre. The Elgar Route, a 40-mile drive passing some key landmarks from Elgar's life, passes through Malvern.^[37]

The Chandos Symphony Orchestra is one of the leading amateur orchestras in the West Midlands. Based in Malvern under the professional direction of Michael Lloyd with over 100 players, the orchestra specialises in performances of major works of the 19th and 20th Centuries.

The Autumn in Malvern Festival is an annual event featuring performances of highly renowned artists of music, poetry, writers and film makers held during October every year.

Dramatic Arts

Mainstream Theatre

Malvern is a leading provincial centre for theatre^[38]. The theatre is housed in the Malvern Winter Gardens complex in the town centre. The first Malvern Drama Festival^[39] was planned by Sir Barry Jackson and took place in 1929 and was dedicated to Bernard Shaw. Many premiers of works by famous playwrights had their first performances at Malvern, including two by Bernard Shaw. In 1956, on the occasion of the dramatist's 100th birthday, Malvern held a Shaw centenary week. In February 1965 a Malvern Festival Theatre Trust was set up, and extensive refurbishment was undertaken. J B Priestley presided over the opening ceremony of the first summer season. In 1998 a further £7.2 million major redesign and refurbishment took place with the help of contributions from the The National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF), administered by the government Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Fringe Festival

Malvern is the home of one of the oldest Fringe festivals in the world. ^[40] The Malvern Fringe Festival is an arts festival (founded 1977) which takes place on MayDay and the annual three day festival held in June as a fringe to the Elgar Festival. These are accompanied by musical and other live events throughout the year. The Fringe aims to be inclusive; bridging the generation gap by providing a varied programme of events for the local people of Malvern aimed at all ages.

The Theatre of Small Convenience entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2002 as the smallest theatre in the world. Located in a former Victorian public convenience in the centre of the town, the theatre has a capacity of 12 people seated, or 16 people standing.

Malvern in Literature

C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien used to walk on the Malvern Hills. The story goes that, after drinking in a Malvern pub one winter evening, they were walking home when it started to snow. They saw a lamp post shining out through the snow and Lewis turned to his friends and said "that would make a very nice opening line to a book". Lewis' book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe later used that image as the characters enter the realm of Narnia.^{[citation needed]}

The poet W. H. Auden taught for three years in the 1930s at the The Downs School, in the Malvern Hills. He wrote many poems there, including: This Lunar Beauty; Let Your Sleeping Head; My Love, Fish in the Unruffled Lakes; and Out on the Lawn I Lie in Bed. He also wrote the long poem about the hills and their views, called simply The Malverns

William Langland's The famous 14th century poem The Visions of Piers Plowman (1362) was inspired by the Malvern Hills and The earliest poetical allusion to them occurs in the poem:^[41] And on a Maye mornynge on Malverne hylles. William Langland, the reputed writer, was possibly educated at the priory of Great Malvern. Several roads and buildings in Malvern are named after Langland.

Churches in Malvern

In additioni to the 12th century priory, concomittant with Malvern's expansion during the second half of the 19th century several churches were built in Malvern, including:

• 1842, Holy trinity, North Malvern,. The style is 13th-century Gothic. (CofE)
• 1844 St Mary the Virgin , Guarlford, (CofE)
• 1864 St Leonard in Newland 14th century style. (CofE)
• 1874 Christ Church, Great Malvern in 14th century Gothic style. (CofE)
• 1885 St Andrew, Poolbrook, 13th century style. (CofE)
• 1903 All Saints, The Wyche, 13th-century style. (CofE)

Other churches built around the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries include

• The Church of the Ascension, Malvern Link. (CofE)
• St Mathias, Malvern Link (CofE). The church has a set of ten ringing bells. The first full peal (Grandsire Triples) was rung on 1 June 1901^[42]
• St James', West Malvern (CofE)

and several churches of other Christian denominations.

Health Facilities

A hospital in the town centre, built in 1911, now serves mainly for the elderly and convalescence although consultants from major Worcester NHS hospitals hold clinics there. Work on a new hospital for the area began in early 2009 away from the town centre.^[43] In 2006 a large, modern health complex was opened on the edge of Malvern Link from which a large GPs practice now operates. Another GP group practice opened a health centre on Pickersleigh Road near the town centre in 2008.
Malvern contains several nursing homes and retirement homes for the care of senior citizens.

Transport

Road: The A449 road runs through the centre of Malvern, connecting it to Worcester and Ledbury. The M5 motorway to the east of Malvern is accessible at junctions 7 and 8. The M50 (also known as the Ross Spur) to the south can be accessed at junction 1 on the A38 road between Tewkesbury and Malvern.

Rail: Malvern has two railway stations (Great Malvern and Malvern Link), providing direct services to Worcester, Hereford, Birmingham, Oxford and London.

Bus: Several local bus services connect Malvern with the surrounding area.^[44] From April to August, on weekends and public holidays, the Hills Hopper service provides access to the Malvern Hills and environs.^[45]Long-distance direct bus services connect Malvern with other cities in the country, including the National Express route 321 through eleven counties from Aberdare in South Wales via Birmingham and other major cities, to Bradford in West Yorkshire,^[46] and route 444 from Worcester to London (Victoria).^[47]

Air: Malvern's nearest major airport is Birmingham International approximately one hour by road via the M5 and M42 motorways.

Education

Malvern is home to several private primary schools, a college of further education, and two large state comprehensive schools. A third large comprehensive school located in a nearby village also caters for students from the Malvern area. Following the decline of Malvern's popularity as a spa town in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many private boarding schools were established in Malvern, often occupying the premises of former hotels and large villas. Two large public schools (private secondary schools) - one for boys, The Boy's College, Malvern College, and one for girls, Malvern St James's - now remain and rank among the country's foremost private schools.

High Schools

The Chase Technology College in Barnards Green has over 1700 pupils. It is a specialist Technology, Language and Science college under the specialist schools programme, and has been awarded Beacon School status. At the last OFSTED inspection (February 2006), the school was described as "good with some outstanding features". Average GSCE results in 2008 were 382.7 with 54% of pupils achieving grade A*-C; average A level results in 2008 were 735.9.^[48]

Dyson Perrins in Malvern Link, a Church of England school with almost 1000 pupils, is a specialist Sports College. Following a critical OFSTED inspection in January 2009 the school was placed in special measures.^[49] Average GSCE results in 2008 were 344.8 with 40% of pupils achieving grade A*-C; average A level results in 2008 were 797.3.^[48]

Hanley Castle High School formerly called Hanley Castle Grammar School, in Hanley Castle village about four miles to the east of the town centre, was probably founded in 1326 and is one of the oldest schools in England. Since the early 1970s the school has become a mixed gender, voluntary controlled comprehensive with a population of about 900 students aged 11 to 18. Its catchment area covers the town and much of the surrounding rural area, and it has been awarded Language School status by OFSTED.^[50]

Public Schools

Malvern College is a coeducational British independent school, founded in 1865.
Until 1992, it was an school for boys aged 13 to 18. Following a series of mergers from 1992 to 2008it has since become coeducational with pupils from 3 to 18 years old. In 2007 the school was ranked by The Times newspaper as the 5th best co-educational independent school in the country. Among its alumni are two Nobel Laureates, an Olympic Gold medalist, and prime ministers of several countries. Malvern St. James (formed by the merger of Malvern Girls College and St. James' School). Its main building is the former Imperial Hotel, built in the second half of the 19th century.

Further Education

Evesham and Malvern Hills College., formerly Malvern Hills College, formerly Malvern College of Further Education.

Malvern also has an active University of the Third Age that was founded at Malvern Hills College in 1995. Its inagural meeting was attended by around 150 members of the public, and by 2009 it had over 70 interest groups and 1000 members.^[51]

Health facilites

A hospital in Landsdowne Crescent near the town centre, built in 1911 and expanded in 1960, replaced an earlier hospital off Newtown Road in Link Top. Officially termed a Community Hospital, it could be described as a cottage hospital. It is now used mainly by the elderly, and for convalescence, although consultants from major Worcester NHS hospitals hold clinics there. Work on a new hospital for the area began in early 2009 away from the town centre.^[52] In 2006 a new, modern health complex was opened on the edge of Malvern Link from which a large GP group practice now operates. Another GP group practice opened a health centre on Pickersleigh Road in 2008. Malvern also has several nursing homes and retirement homes for the care of senior citizens.

Leisure

The Priory Park with its adjoining Malvern Splash pool and Winter Gardens complex occupies a large area in the centre of the town. The Winter Gardens complex is home to the Malvern Theatre, a cinema (movie theatre), a concert venue/banqueting room, bars and cafeterias. For almost half a century, the Malvern Winter Gardens has also been the leisure centre and a major regional venue for classical music, and concerts by legendary rock bands of the 60s, 70s and 80s. In 1998 a £7.2 million major redesign and refurbishment of the Winter Gardens took place with the help of contributions from the The National Lottery Distribution Fund (NLDF), administered by the government Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The Splash Leisure Complex flanks the eastern boundary of Priory Park and has an indoor swimming pool and gymnasium.
In the town is also an extensive Public Library that includes access to many community services.

Sport

• The Manor Park Club Multi Sports Complex provides the area with extensive indoor and outdoor sports facilities. It is assisted by grants from various bodies, including the Malvern Hills District Council, the Sport of England Lottery and the Lawn Tennis Association.
• Football (soccer): Malvern Town FC's first team play in the Southern League Division One Midlands and have twice reached the third qualifying round of the FA Cup.
• Hang gliding and paragliding: The Malvern Hills are a popular launching site and Malvern is the location of a hang gliding club.for^[53]
• The Willy Thorne Snooker Centre in Malvern is a regular venue for world-class snooker matches played by past and present world champions.

Notable people

• Thomas Attwood, British economist and campaigner for electoral reform, died in Malvern, on 9 March 1859.
• W. H. Auden, poet and playwrite, taught for three years 1930 - 1933 at the Downs School, Colwall.
• David Bilsborough, author of The Wanderer's Tale and A Fire in the North novels that form part of the Annals of Lindormyn series, was born and raised in Malvern^[54]
• Charles Darwin's daughter Anne is buried in the graveyard of Malvern Priory.
• Anne Diamond, English television journalist and presenter, grew up in Malvern.
• Edward Elgar, British composer, taught in Great Malvern and much of his work was influenced by the Malvern Hills. Elgar is buried at St. Wulstan's, Little Malvern.
• Charles Hastings, founder of the British Medical Association, spent his final years Hastings House, Barnards Green.
• Basil Foster (12 February 1882 - 28 September 1959), an English cricketer who played 34 first-class matches in the early 20th century, was born in Malvern.
• Graeme Hick, famous cricketer, currently resides in the Malvern area, and coaches at the Malvern College.
• Nigel Kennedy, famous British violinist also lived in West Malvern for a while.
• William Langland's allegorical narrative poem Piers Plowman (written ca. 1360–1387) begins on the Malvern Hills.
• C. S. Lewis, novelist, was a pupil at the preparatory school Cherbourg House and the Malvern College.
• Jenny Lind, opera singer, lived and died in Malvern, and is buried in Great Malvern cemetery.
• P. H. Newby CBE, Winner of the first Booker Prize, Managing Director BBC Radio 1975-78, was educated at Hanley Castle Grammar School^[55]
• Peter Mark Roget, lexicographer, is buried in the graveyard of St James, West Malvern.
• Jacqui Smith, former British Home Secretary, was born and raised in Malvern.
• Philip Woodward, British mathematician and horologist, one of the chief developers of radar, worked at TRE (where a building was later named for him) and still lives in Great Malvern as of July 2009. In 2009 Dr Woodward was honoured by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).^[56]

References

Bibliography

• Bowden, Mark, et al, (2005) The Malvern Hills - An ancient landscape English Heritage ISBN 1873592825
• Brooks, Alan & Pevsner, Nikolaus; (2007) Worcestershire: The Buildings of England Yale University Press ISBN 030011298X
• Dolan, John Gilbert (1910) "Malvern." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company, New Advent Archive
• Freer-Minshull, Tony (2007)The Foley Family Vol.2
• Hembry, Phylis May, et al (1997) British spas from 1815 to the present, Athlone Press, and Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, ISBN 0838637485
• Iles, Brian (2005) The Malverns ISBN 0-7524-3667-8
• Poulton-Smith, Anthony (2003) Worcestershire Place Names, The History Press ISBN-13: 9780750933964 ISBN 0750933968
• Smith, Brian (1978) A History of Malvern ISBN 0-904387-313
• Weaver, Cora & Osborne, Bruce (2006) The Illumination of St. Werstan the Martyr ISBN: 9781873809679, ISBN 1873809670, EAN 9781873809679
• Weaver, Cora & Osborne, Bruce (1994) Aquae Malvernensis:a history and topography of the springs, spouts, fountains and wells of the Malverns and the development of a public water supply. Malvern : Cora Weaver

External links

Administration

• Malvern Town Council official web site
• Malvern Hills District Council
• Worcestershire County Council

Geography and layout

• Town centre map
• Aerial view
• Early 20th-century photographs of the town

History and culture

• Malvern Museum site 1
• Malvern Museum site 2
• Malvern Festival
• Malvern Theatres
• Malvern Fringe Festival
• Malvern Spa Association
• 

  

  Barnards Green Cricket Club.
• Barnards Green Cricket Club
• The Malvern transmitting station photo gallery

Education

• Evesham and Malvern Hills College - Adult Education
• The Chase school - state secondary school
• Dyson Perrins school - state secondary school
• Malvern St James - private school
• Malvern College - private school

Tourism

• Official Council tourism information
• Three Counties site- Agricultural shows
• Royal Horticultural Society - Spring Gardening Show

News

• Malvern Gazette Malvern weekly newspaper

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