Town in Worcestershire, England
Malvern
Victorians came to Malvern to be wrapped in wet sheets and doused in cold water. Later, wartime scientists here developed radar for the RAF after moving to the town in 1942.
Key information
- County
- Worcestershire
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- The Malvern Hills, spring water, Edward Elgar, Morgan cars and wartime radar
- What locals are called
- Malvernians
- Famous people
- Edward Elgar, Charles Darwin (as a patient), C. S. Lewis (as a schoolboy), Florence Nightingale (as a visitor)
About Malvern
The town that took the water cure
In the 1840s, Malvern became the most fashionable place in Britain to feel dreadful. Two doctors, James Wilson and James Manby Gully, promoted hydropathy here: the belief that cold water, applied vigorously, could cure almost anything. Patients were wrapped in wet sheets, doused under cold showers and sent out on early-morning walks up the hills. Charles Darwin tried the regime in 1849 for his chronic ill health, and said he felt better for it. Tennyson, Dickens and Florence Nightingale were among the other famous names who came to take the waters. The cure left its mark on the town. Grand villas climbed the hillside, and Victorian donkeys carried visitors up the slopes. Springs and spouts still dot the hills, among them St Ann's Well and the Holy Well. The water's most poignant link with Darwin is a sad one. His daughter Annie died in Malvern in 1851 and is buried in the Priory churchyard.
Why a lump of hills sets the whole mood
The Malvern Hills rise abruptly from the flat Worcestershire and Herefordshire plain, running for about eight miles like a spine. Their rocks are among the oldest in England, more than 600 million years old. The highest point is Worcestershire Beacon at 425 metres, the county's summit. At the other end of the story, the Iron Age hillfort of British Camp, on the Herefordshire Beacon, has ramparts that ring the hilltop in neat terraces. Medieval poet William Langland set the opening of Piers Plowman on these slopes, with a dreamer falling asleep on the hills and waking to a vision of the world. Centuries later, the Malvern Hills Conservators were set up by an Act of 1884 to keep the land open for everyone, and they still look after it today. The name itself is thought to come from an old Welsh phrase for 'bare hill'.
Elgar's hills
Edward Elgar was born in nearby Broadheath but made the Malvern area his creative home. He cycled these lanes, walked the ridge and composed some of his best-known music while living here. He is buried at St Wulstan's Catholic church in Little Malvern, at the foot of the hills. The Enigma Variations are the piece most closely tied to his Worcestershire years, and many walkers hear echoes of the landscape in his music. Malvern remembers him with a statue in the town and a long-distance Elgar Route that threads through the places he knew. In 1929, Malvern's theatre scene got a boost when the Malvern Festival began, championed by Barry Jackson, with George Bernard Shaw as its star dramatist. Shaw premiered plays here, and the festival put the small spa town on the national theatre map.
Bubbles, bottles and Schweppes
Malvern water was known as pure long before it was famous. Schweppes began bottling at Holywell in 1850, and the water was on show at the Great Exhibition of 1851. For over a century afterwards, Malvern water was sold around the world as a name that meant clean and sparkling. The main bottling plant at Colwall closed in 2010, but the springs still flow, and the old spouts are free to use. For food, look for Malvern pudding, a dessert of stewed apples topped with custard and a caramelised sugar topping. Being in Worcestershire, the town also sits in a county of orchards, plums and perry, and the local pubs know it.
Radar, LCDs and the most British car
In 1942, the Telecommunications Research Establishment moved to Malvern, taking over buildings including Malvern College. Scientists here worked on radar for the RAF and the wider war effort, in a quiet spa town that few would have picked as a hub of secret science. The tradition continued after the war with the Royal Radar Establishment, whose researchers helped drive early work on liquid crystal displays, the technology behind flat screens and digital watches. A different kind of engineering is at Malvern Link, where Morgan Motor Company has made cars since 1909. H. F. S. Morgan started with a three-wheeler, and the firm still builds its sports cars by hand, with ash wood frames, in the same town. The local school has its own literary claim to fame: C. S. Lewis was a pupil at Malvern College as a teenager, though he did not enjoy it.
What to see and do in Great Malvern
Great Malvern Priory, founded in 1085, is the town's anchor. Its medieval floor tiles and 15th-century stained glass are among the finest of their kind in England. Next door is the Priory Gatehouse, now home to a museum. The railway station opened in 1860, and its distinctive Victorian buildings were completed in 1862. Decorated cast-iron columns showcase the town's grand ambitions. In June, the Three Counties Show draws crowds of farmers, foodies and families to the showground. Malvern Theatres and the Winter Gardens keep the performing tradition alive. The best view is from Worcestershire Beacon, a steady walk up from the town centre. Locals, known as Malvernians, treat the hills as their back garden.