It is likely
that the Ancient Britains were responsible for naming Malvern, or
moel-bryn meaning "the bare hill".
The Malvern
Hills that dominate the surrounding Worcestershire and Herefordshire
landscape bear testament to their presence in the area with British
Camp, an immense Iron Age hill fort whose 2000 year old ramparts
remain clearly visible today.
Originally
thought to have been a purely defensive feature for people to
retreat within in times of trouble, recent discoveries have
suggested that the fort was in fact permanently occupied over a
period of five hundred years, at any one time the home to a 4,000
strong tribe.
Hill forts
continued to dominate the English landscape right up until the
arrival of the Romans when, one by one, they fell to the might and
persistence of Roman civil engineering siege tactics.
Popular local folklore recalls how the Ancient British chieftain
Caractacus made his last stand at British Camp. The legend tells
that Caractacus was captured after a heroic fight and transported to
Rome, where he so impressed the Emperor Claudius that he was
released, given a villa and a pension.
However the legend is unlikely to involve British Camp. Yes, it is
recorded that Caractacus was captured by the Romans, taken to Rome
and eventually released, but if the account of his final battle by
the Roman historian Tacitus is accurate, then it is unlikely to have
taken place at British Camp. Tacitus describes “a river of doubtful
fordability” in his events of the battle, the likes of which can
only be found several miles away from Malvern. The top ramparts of
British Camp are not in fact Iron Age, but a Norman motte
fortification.
The Normans arrived
in Malvern shortly after the Battle of Hastings, and work started on
a monastery in what was then known as Malvern Chase in 1085, a
chase being an area of unenclosed land where wild animals are
kept for hunting purposes.
Originally built for thirty monks on land belonging to Westminster
Abbey, the Great Malvern Priory evolved over the next few hundred
years.
The
fortunes of the priory changed however when in the 1530s King Henry
VIII, short of cash, decided to plunder the funds of the Popes
Catholic monasteries. Any opposition was quickly brushed aside by
Thomas Cromwell, and in 1539 the Malvern monks surrendered their
lands and buildings. These were subsequently sold on to various
people with the exception of the church, which remained the property
of The Crown.
Lack of funds over
the next couple of centuries resulted in hardly any repairs or
maintenance being carried out to the priory. This shortage of
funding meant that there was not even enough money to remove and
replace the ‘Popish’ medieval glass, which still remains.
In the 1600s the
English Civil War raged across the country including nearby
Worcester: Malvern however, surrounded by the dense forest of
Malvern Chase, emerged relatively unscathed.
The
town of Malvern prospered significantly during the Victorian era, a
key date being 1842, when Doctors James Wilson and Gully set up
their water cure establishments in Belle Vue at the centre of town
enabling visitors to ‘take the waters’. Both Charles Dickens and
Charles Darwin arrived in town to sample the water for themselves.
The
reputation of the purity of Malvern water was firmly established
when in 1851 J Schweppe & Co. presented it to the world at the Great
Exhibition held in Hyde Park, London. Malvern Water is now bottled
at Colwall by Schweppes (now part of the Coca Cola Corporation) and
is available for sale at many of the excellent hostelries in the
town; alternatively you can sample it free of charge at any of the
70 or so natural springs in the area.
The names and
locations of the natural Malvern springs can be found at
www.malverntrail.co.uk/malvernhills.htm
Local
boy and world renowned composer
Sir Edward Elgar,
who lived in Malvern for some years, recorded local history and
legend for posterity when he released his Cantata Caractacus in
1898.
DESTINATIONS UK 