On Sunday a few members of our walking group met at Great Malvern station ready to explore this former Victorian spa town and to go for an October ramble in the nearby hills. Luckily for us organised outdoor activity is still permitted.
The Malverns
The Malverns are a range of low hills on the Worcestershire, Herefordshire border. They are very popular with walkers of all abilities. The local tourist board has produced a series of suggested routes and free maps. I was surprised at how many ramblers were out enjoying the Autumn colours.
Great Malvern
The small town of Great Malvern is largely Victorian. It owed much of its prosperity to the railways and the Victorian love of holidays. Wealthy Victorians enjoyed taking the local mineral waters and over 100 springs rise in the nearby hills. Drs Gully and Simpson brought a hydrotherapy water cure from Austria. Although I love swimming I am not sure I would have enjoyed it much as patients were wrapped in cold wet sheets. By 1855 there were already 95 hotels and lodging houses. A contemporary visitor described it as a way for the witless wealthy to be parted from their purse by a Quack.
C. S. Lewis was at school in Malvern and fans of Narnia might recognise the gas lamps.
Another famous resident was Sir Edward Elgar, the British composer who wrote the Enigma variations while he lived in the city.
The oldest building is the Prior Church which was founded by Benedictine monks in 1085. One of the priors was a noted astronomer who used an astrolabe to study the phases of the moon. Prior Walcher learned Arabic and translated astronomical and mathematical texts from Arabic to Latin. He became a big fan of Arabic numbers which he used in his calculations and was partly responsible for introducing them into England.
It was my first visit and I discovered Great Malvern had other suprising claims to fame. Mr. Perins a local chemist invented Worcester sauce and Morgan made the first motorcar.
If you want to discover more about the history of Great Malvern including its part in the development of radar the town museum is situated in the abbey gateway. Much of the original structure has been hidden by Victorian restoration.
Getting there
Great Malvern is about an hour and a half by car from Bristol. It is about 25 minutes from junction 8 of the M5.
We stayed overnight at the Premier Inn but there are lots of other hotels to suit all budgets.
16 responses to “Escape to the Malvern Hills”
I love the Malvern Hills. They remind me of my childhood as we would go for a walk and a picnic on them.
What a beautiful little town, Anne. Thanks for sharing these photos. That must have been a lovely walk.
We are back in lockdown so it was good to have a short break.
I love that Malvern is not only naturally beautiful and quaint but it also has so much character and history. Can’t believe C. S. Lewis was at school in Malvern!
It sounds glorious!! I shall definitely add it to our list of places to visit
Thank heavens that outside meetings are still possible! This looks amazing, I need to visit!
This looks great, I have to admit I hadn’t heard of it either but I certainly want to visit it now!
This looks amazing, I haven’t heard of it before but I will add it on the to see list!
What a beautiful place! I have never been but now on my list!!
PS. I’m not sure if you know this already but your social share icon for Twitter doesn’t tag your username correctly. I adjusted it manually but I thought you should know as people might share this without you realising as it won’t tag you.
Hope you don’t mind me telling you, just wanted to let you know in case you didn’t already.
Caz xx
Thanks. I will try to figure out how to make it work.
I’m glad you got to do this walk. The Malverns are lovely. I used to go there a lot as a kid, not for any big walks just little ones with my parents, sometimes with a bite to eat and a blanket, other times with a kite. We used to take water bottles to fill up too, and we’d often drive past that Sir Edward Elgar statue on the road through. Your post has bought back a lot of memories! We moved over the border though from Herefordshire to Gloucestershire so I’ve not been back since. It’s not surprising the Malvern Hills are so popular for walkers. xx
I used to go to British camp with my parents when I was small but this was the first time I have been to Great Malvern. The hills seem steeper.
What a lot of claims to fame it has! I really like the numerical memorial to Prior Walcher.
I discovered it by accident.
Ohhh I’ve been close to here but not explored enough.
Some amazing facts – thanks for sharing, I don’t pay attention enough but know a book worn who might ha