Great Malvern

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Great Malvern
Great Malvern (Worcestershire)
Great Malvern

Great Malvern shown within Worcestershire
OS grid reference SO786459
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 Wyre Forest
List of places: UK • England • Worcestershire

Coordinates: 52°07′N 2°20′W / 52.11, -2.33

View over Great Malvern at sunrise
View over Great Malvern at sunrise
Malvinha Fountain on Belle Vue Island not far from Elgar's statue and the Enigma Fountain
Malvinha Fountain on Belle Vue Island not far from Elgar's statue and the Enigma Fountain

Great Malvern is a town in Worcestershire, England, positioned at the foot, and partly on the sides, of the Malvern Hills.

Great Malvern is the main part of Malvern, Worcestershire; other parts include Barnards Green, Little Malvern, Malvern Link, Malvern Wells, North Malvern, and West Malvern often referred to - along with the hills - as The Malverns.

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[edit] Town centre

The Malvern Hills give the town a steep incline, particularly Church Street, one of the two main streets, which makes getting around the town centre relatively tricky. The other main street is the perpendicular Bellevue Terrace, a relatively flat extension of the Worcester Road. At the heart of the town is a statue of Edward Elgar, who lived in and loved the town. Among the many shops are two supermarkets (Waitrose and Somerfield, 20 meters (66 feet) apart), a W H Smith bookshop, a Woolworths department store, Severn Office Supplies, Brays (clothing), and an extensive Public Library. Since the construction of supermarkets in the town centre and other parts of Malvern, most of the shops in the town centre are now tea-rooms, specialist cafés and snack bars, banks, building societies (British home mortgage companies), second-hand books shops, law firms and solicitors offices and estate agents.

Along the railway line from Worcester to Hereford is the Victorian Great Malvern railway station, whose waiting room has been converted to a traditional tearoom. The station is a listed building and is a superb existing example of Victorian railway architecture. It has a private pedestrian tunnel (now derelict) built specially for the guests of the nearby Imperial Hotel which was the town's largest during its heyday as a spa town and resort. In 1893 the building which housed the hotel became the Malvern Girls' College now called Malvern St James. Malvern Theatres is the town's local theatre in the Winter Gardens complex, and hosts a wide range of plays, films, and concerts. George Bernard Shaw co-founded the original theatre, in Great Malvern. The Splash Leisure Complex has a swimming pool and gymnasium. The town regularly hosts arts and other festivals in the Winter Gardens which also includes a large concert/banqueting room, bars, cafeterias and a cinema (movie theatre). The Priory Park with its adjoining Malvern Splash pool and Winter Gardens occupies a large area in the centre of the town.

[edit] Health

Malvern has a hospital, which dates from the early 20th century, replacing an earlier hospital off Newtown Road. It could be described as a cottage hospital. Many in-patients are elderly, recuperating before discharge back to their homes. Consultants from Worcester Royal Hospital hold clinics there. In 2006, the future of this hospital is uncertain. There are plans to build a new hospital for Malvern, but no final decision has been made. The need for a new hospital has been discussed in Parliament. In 2006 a new, modern health complex was opened on the edge of Malvern Link from which most of the town's GPs now operate.

[edit] Location

Ordnance Survey grid reference SO786459. Latitude: N52:06:42, Longitude W002:18:46.

Great Malvern is approximately 13 kilometres (8 miles) south-west of the city of Worcester, on the eastern slopes of the Malvern Hills. The altitude of the town ranges from about 50 to 200 meters (164 to 656 feet) above sea level. The River Severn runs roughly north-south about 6.4 kilometers (4 miles) to the east of the town.

[edit] Education

Education is one of the largest fields of employment in Great Malvern, which is home to several private schools, two state secondary schools, and the adult-education Malvern Hills College. The best-known private schools are Malvern College and Malvern St James.

The Chase Technology College is the largest secondary school in the town, with 1,800 pupils. Dyson Perrins High School, in Malvern Link, has about 900 students.

[edit] Showground

The Three Counties Showground, a few miles to the south of Malvern on the road to the town of Upton upon Severn (part of the Malvern District), is the venue for the famous Three Counties Show which while traditionally representing the three counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, it is one of the country's most important agricultural shows and events. It also hosts the Spring Gardening Show, and many other events throughout the year.

[edit] Fringe Festival

Great Malvern is the home of one of the oldest Fringe festivals in the world. [1] The main events of the Malvern Fringe are the May Day 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.

[edit] History

Great Malvern developed around an 11th-century priory, the remains of which make up much of Great Malvern Priory, now a large parish church.

The town remained small until the early 1800s, when the 'taking of the water' in Malvern came into fashion after being first recommended by Dr. Wall in 1756. By the 1820s the Baths and the Pump Room were opened and by the middle of the 19th century, there were many hotels, bath houses, and other establishments catering to the visitor, benefitting from the coming of the railways after the 1850s. The Malvern water became famous for containing "nothing at all".

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many private boarding schools were established in Great Malvern; two large 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.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Geography and layout

[edit] History and culture

[edit] Education

[edit] Tourism

[edit] Health

[edit] News

v • d • e
Areas of Malvern, Worcestershire

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Wikipedia Fringe theatre.
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