thumb|upright|Welcome to Malvern, on an approach road to the town centre.

Malvern (, locally also: ) is a spa town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England.

Post dissolution

During the Dissolution of the Monasteries the local commissioners were instructed to ensure that abbey churches used for parish worship, should continue or could be purchased by parishioners. Malvern Priory was thus acquired by a William Pinnocke and with it, much of the 15th century stained glass windows.

The contemporary antiquary John Leland described the Malvern Hills and Hanley Castle. An Elizabethan land grant of 1558 mentions Holy Well.-->

Bottling and shipping of the Malvern water grew in volume. In 1842, Dr. James Wilson and Dr. James Manby Gully, leading exponents of hydrotherapy, set up clinics in Malvern (Holyrood House for women and Tudor House for men). Lord Tennyson and Samuel Wilberforce.

At a total length of 163 miles (262 km), the 1960s constructed M5 is the fourth-longest motorway in the UK, with accesses near Malvern by passing Worcester city centre, providing direct routes to the areas of Birmingham and Bristol bringing them into commuter distance. Modern manufacturing and service industries were established in Spring Lane Industrial Estate that was developed in the 1960s and the adjoining Enigma Business Park that was built in the 1990s. Since the boundary reform of 2023 Malvern Town Council has nine newly named electoral wards: Chase (4), Great Malvern, Link (4), Lygon (1), Pickersleigh (2), Pound Bank (1), St Joseph (1), Upper Howsell (2), and West (2). The new wards wards are represented by a total of 20 elected councillors (in parentheses) and are based on the distribution of the population and some ignore the names of the neighbourhoods or suburbs they contain, and use loaned names.

Malvern Hills District

Malvern Hills District comprises 68 civil parishes and 22 electoral wards. The ward boundaries were redefined from the wards of the former Malvern Urban District Council (1900–1974), and again in 2023.

The offices of Malvern Town Council, the Malvern Hills Conservators, The Malvern Hills AONB Partnership, and Malvern Hills District Council are in the town centre. The town's amenities include the Malvern Theatres complex, the Priory Park, the Splash leisure and swimming complex, the main library, the police station, the tourist information centre, and the Malvern Museum. In the heart of the town is a statue of the composer Edward Elgar, The 2021 census found the White British ethnic group to be by far the largest in Malvern with 95.2% identifying as such. The next largest ethnic group was White Other, which accounted for 3.2% of the population, followed by the Asian, 642 people, and Mixed Race categories 546 people, with a Black ethnic group of 151 people and the other group constituted 96 of the population.

With the recognised science and technology developments in the Malvern area, Malvern Hills Science Park was built in 1999,

Culture

Architecture

thumb|Prior's Croft, Grange Road (Victorian Gothic architecture)|alt=Photo of a large Victorian villa

The town centre and its environs contain many examples of Regency, 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. Following the collapse of the spa industry, many of the hotels and villas became schools, and some have since been further converted to apartments, while some of the smaller hotels are now retirement homes. The Imperial Hotel in red brick with stone dressings, which later became a school, is one of the largest buildings in Malvern. It was built in 1860 by the architect E. W. Elmslie who also designed the Great Malvern railway station, and the Council House on the plot where Dr. Gully's original house stood. The Grove in Avenue Road in 1867, originally to be his private residence in 1927 became part of the Lawnside School for girls, and in 1860 Whitbourne Hall, a Grade II* listed building, in Herefordshire. Most of the 1960s concerts were staged by Bannister promotions while later events were promoted by Cherry Red, a London-based independent record label formed in 1978.

The Theatre of Small Convenience entered the Guinness World Records in 2002 as the smallest theatre in the world. Housed in a former Victorian public convenience in the centre of the town in Edith Walk, the theatre had a capacity of 12 people.

Literature

William Langland's famous 14th-century poem The Visions of Piers Plowman (1362) was inspired by the Malvern Hills and the earliest poetic allusion to them occurs in the poem And on a Maye mornynge on Malverne hylles. Langland, the reputed writer, was possibly educated at the priory of Great Malvern.

Local radio stations are BBC Hereford and Worcester, Heart West Midlands, Radio Wyvern, Capital Mid-Counties, Greatest Hits Radio Herefordshire & Worcestershire, Hits Radio Herefordshire & Worcestershire, and Smooth West Midlands.

The Malvern Gazette founded 1855, and the Malvern Observer a freesheet launched in 2013 are local Malvern newspapers published weekly.

Malvern water

thumb|left|upright|St Ann's Well spout

Malvern spring water flows freely from a number of fountains or spouts throughout the Malvern area. Upkeep of these historical springs is funded by several organisations, including the Town Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Malvern Spa Association, and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. and since 2016 also with Bagnères-de-Bigorre, a spa town in France.

Places of worship

thumb|upright|Landsdown Methodist Church, Great Malvern

In addition to the 12th century priory, during and shortly after Malvern's expansion throughout the second half of the 19th century over twenty Christian churches were built. Many of these are reproductions of 13th and 14th century architecture including Church of St Matthias, Malvern Link (C of E) begun in 1843, which has a full set of ten ringing bells on which the first full peal of Grandsire Triples was rung on 1 June 1901.

Major health facilities are provided by hospitals in Worcester. The town has seven health centres, The ambulance station is in Victoria Road, Great Malvern, near the town centre.

Other emergency services are provided by West Mercia Police from a station in Victoria Road, and the Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service that has a station in Worcester Road, Malvern Link.

Transport

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

Great Malvern and Malvern Link railway stations are approximately one mile (1.6 km) apart. Great Western Railway and West Midlands Trains operate services as far as Hereford, Birmingham New Street, and London Paddington.

Several circular urban bus routes connect the main residential and commercial areas and out-of-town shopping malls.

Dyson Perrins Church of England Academy in the northern part of the large suburb of Malvern Link, a Church of England school with almost 1000 pupils, is a specialist Sports College.

Hanley Castle High School, with around 1000 pupils, including its sixth form centre, is a specialist Language College and was founded in 1326 as a chantry school, making it one of the oldest schools in England. Although the school is in the village of Hanley Castle, about from the town, many of its pupils come from the Malvern area.

The Abbey College is an international boarding school providing education mainly for students from countries outside the United Kingdom. Founded in 1974, it provides pre university preparation for mixed gender students aged 14 to 20.

Further and higher education

Malvern Hills College, founded and built in 1928 was a centre for further education providing government certificate vocational courses for adults and post 14-year-old students until it closed down in the summer of 2021. The theological college which offers undergraduate and graduate degrees also accepts Christians from a variety of Protestant Christian denominations.

Leisure

thumb|right|Priory Park with Malvern Theatres complex and Priory Church tower in the background

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 Theatres, a cinema, a concert venue/banqueting room, bars and cafeterias.

Malvern is the source of the name of many towns and villages, including Malverne, in New York state, as one of the many in the US and around 15 others around the world in current or former British possessions.

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References

Further reading

  • Malvern Town Council web site
  • Visit The Malverns — Great Malvern (Internet archive)
  • Malvern Museum
  • The Malvern Hills A non commercial, highly detailed resource on Malvern