Great Malvern
52°06′42.27″N 2°19′48.00″W / 52.1117417°N 2.3300000°W Template:GBthumb
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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 as The Malverns and more in-depth information on Malvern will be found in the dedicated sections on these town areas.
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 offices and real 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 dedicated siding which goes into an underground station built specially for the guests of the nearby Imperial Hotel which was the town's largest during its heyday as a spa and resort. In 1893 the buiding 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.
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. 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.
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). The River Severn runs roughly north-south about 6.4 kilometers (4 miles) to the east of the town.
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 1,700 pupils. Dyson Perrins High School, in Malvern Link, has about 900 students.
Showground
The Three Counties Showground, several miles to the south of Malvern on the road to the town of Upton on 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 events. It also hosts the Spring Gardening Show, and many other events throughout the year.
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 MayDay 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.
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 1800s, when the taking of water in Malvern came into fashion. By the middle of the 19th century, there were many hotels, bath houses, and other establishments catering to the visitor. 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, and one for girls, Malvern St James's - now remain and rank among the country's most elite.
External links
Geography and layout
History and culture
Education
- Evesham and Malvern Hills College
- The Chase school
- Dyson Perrins school
- Malvern St James
- Malvern College
Tourism
- Three Counties site
- Royal Horticultural Society (responsible for the Spring Gardening Show)
- Tourism information
Health
- Malvern Hospital (NHS site)
- Hospital Bank site redevelopment (2001 newspaper article)
News
- Malvern Gazette Local Malvern weekly newspaper
Footnotes
- ^ Wikipedia Fringe theatre.