Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for MALVERN (GREAT)

MALVERN (GREAT), a town and a parish in Uptonon-Severn district, Worcester. The town stands on an eastern slope of the Malvern hills, at the junction of the Worcester and Hereford railway with the Tewkesbury and Malvern railway, 1½ mile NNE of the boundary with Herefordshire, and 8½ SW by S of Worcester. It was, till recently, a mere village; yet it dates from considerably ancient times. A hermitage, or house of seculars, was founded at it in the time of Edward the Confessor; and was converted by Alwin, with the aid of Bishop a Wulstan of Worcester, into a Benedictine priory. The priory became subject, in the time of Henry I., to the jurisdiction of Westminster; had a cell at Avercole, notable for a tragic occurrence in the time of the crusades; figured, for a long period, as a place of much ecclesiastical grandeur and influence; and, at the dissolution of monasteries, was purchased by the inhabitants to be used as a parish church. A song composed in the time of James I., says, -

Great Malvern, on a rock, thou dwellest surely,
Do not thyself forget, living securely;
Thou hast a famous church, and rarely builded
No country town hath such, most men have yielded,
For pillars stout and strong, and windows large and long;
Remember, in thy song, to praise the Lord.

The ancient town, or village, is irregular, and consists chiefly of scattered houses. The modern town is well built; contains numerous terrace lines of good houses; makes an imposing display of hotels, boarding-houses, and public buildings; and has, in its centre, spacious promenade gardens. Its environs are highly picturesque; its climate, though subject to piercing east winds in spring and to great midday heat in summer, is highly salubrious; and its bathing and medicinal waters, aided by hydropathic establishments, have acquired eminent repute. The town owes its modern growth mainly to the resort of invalids, who appreciate excellent appliances for health, without caring much for accompaniments of gaiety and amusement; and it promises to acquire further and rapid growth, both from increasing force of the same cause, and as a place of education. The railway station is a handsome structure, and was opened in 1859. A very large hotel stands adjacent to the station; was erected in 1862 by a public company, at a cost of more than £25,000; presents a highly ornate appearance, similar to that of the Great Western hotel at Paddington; and has very high roofs. Other hotels and boarding-houses are as numerous as in many a city. A club-house, in the Palladian-Italian style, with adjoining masonic hall, was projected in 1869. The proprietary college stands on a beautiful spot commanding an extensive view of the valley of the Severn; was built in 1865, after designs byF. Hansom; is in the decorated English style, on a ground plan in the form of an E; measures 210 feel along the W front; has there a central turretted tower 100 feet high, a two-storied centre extending from the tower, the ends of two wings in the form of two church-like gables with seven-light windows, and a detached ornate chapel with slender spire; comprises a classic school and a modern school, in two large wing-buildings, whose W ends form the gables of the W front; includes an open quadrangle in the rear, between these two buildings; has two principal schoolrooms, each 97 feet long, 35 feet wide, and 57 feet high, affords accommodation for 600 boys; and conducts its course of instruction on the system of the great public schools. There are a national school, an endowed school, an industrial school, a public library, and a workingmen s literary institute. The public library is kept in a building of the Doric style. A suitable edifice for the literary institute was proposed, in 1866, to be erected at a cost of about £750. The parish church, or church of the quondam priory, is partly early Norman, chiefly later English; comprises nave, aisles, transepts, and chancel, with central embattled tower 124 feet high; measures 177 feet in length, 63 feet in width, and 63 feet in height; had formerly a Lady chapel, 50 feet in length; underwent restoration in 1860-4, at a cost of about £12,420; has a fine memorial window to the late Prince Consort, put up in 1862; and contains stalls, sedilia, four interesting ancient monuments, a beautiful recent monument to Mrs. S. Thompson, and the graves of Bishop Bathurst of Norwich and Bishop Jenkinson of St. David's. The gateway of the ancient priory still stands, and is a beautiful specimen of later English. St. Mary's church, at Barnards-Green, was erected in 1844, at a cost of about £2,000. Trinity church is at North Malvern. There are chapels for Independents, Lady Huntingdon's Connexion, Quakers, Wesleyans, and Roman Catholics, in the town; and a chapel for Independents, at Malvern-Chase. The Wesleyan chapel was built in 1866, at a cost of £3,000; is in the early decorated English style; comprises nave, transept, and apse, with a pinnacled tower 104 feet high; contains about 500 sittings; and stands over cryptic schoolrooms, capable of accommodating 500 children. The Roman Catholic chapel was built in 1863; is in the pointed style; consists of a nave of 80 feet by 30, with three side chapels; and was designed to be extended, at some conVenient period, by the addition of chancel. The public. cemetery occupies a space of about 3 acres, and was opened in 1861. A suite of alms houses, in result of a munificent bequest of £60,000 by the Earl of Beauchamp, was founded in Oct. 1862. Other endowed charities connected with the town amount yearly to about £20. The town has a head post office,‡ a telegraph-station, and two banking offices; is a seat of petty sessions; and publishes two weekly newspapers. Pop. in 1861, 4,484. Houses, .709.

The waters of Malvern, which so greatly attract invalids, are remarkably limpid, and owe their reputed virtues probably quite as much to extreme purity as to any positive medicinal qualities; and they are used for bathing as well as for drinking, and prove eminently suitable to the hydropathic establishments. Two springs are mainly in request; the one called St. Anne's, in the E part of the town, near the parish church; the other called Holywell, about 2 miles to the S. The water of St. Anne's contains, per gallon, 3.45 grains of carbonate of soda, 1.48 of sulphate of soda,.955 of muriate of soda,.352 of carbonate of lime,.328 of carbonate of iron, and.47 of residum; and that of the Holywell contains 5.33 of carbonate of soda, 2.896 of sulphate of soda, 1.553 of muriate of soda, 16 of carbonate of lime,.625 of carbonate of iron, and 1687 of residuum. St. Anne's well is very picturesquely situated; and every desirable accommodation exists for drinking the waters, and for hot and cold bathing. A weekly lecture on water, health, and kindred topics is delivered in an apartment, used as a reading-room, in Townsend House; an annual temperance fête is held in the beautiful grounds connected with that edifice; and an annual ball, and a fewin door recreations, are the only other local amusements. But very ample and very inspiriting means exist for pedestrian rambles, mounted or carriage excursions, picnic parties, angling, botanizing, and geological exploration. The parish contains also the hamlet of BarnardsGreen and the chapelry of Newland. Acres, 5,021. Real property, exclusive of Newland, £35,142; of which £20 are in quarries. Pop. in 1851,3,771; in 1861,6,054. Houses, 992. Real property, inclusive of Newland, £36,854. Pop. in 1851,3,911; in 1861,6,245. Houses, 1,026. The property, in all parts, is much subdivided. The manor belongs to Lady Emily Foley. Malvern Chase, once a forest, but now enclosed, included most of the parish, and extended beyond it; and it belonged, for some time, to the Clares. The parish is ecclesiastically cut into the sections of Great Malvern or Prior church, Guarlford, and North Malvern. The living of the first is a vicarage, of the second a rectory, of the third a p. curacy, in the diocese of Worcester. Valne of the first, £350; * of the second, £337.* Patron of the first, Lady Emily Foley; of the second, Earl Beauchamp; of the third, the Vicar of Great Malvern.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Great Malvern CP/AP       Worcestershire AncC
Place names: GREAT MALVERN     |     MALVERN     |     MALVERN GREAT
Place: Malvern

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