We go so you don't have to

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One hot day in late summer we went to Malvern, listed as Malferna in the Domesday Book 1086 and classified as woodland. The name is ancient British moel-bryn or ‘Bare-Hill. The modern Welsh equivalent is Moelfryn or ‘bald hill’. The area is rich in prehistoric remains, being positioned on a major ancient trade route connecting the salt mines of Droitwich Cheshire to South Wales, but with only a day to spare – a very hot day – we limited ourselves to the town and the Priory.

It’s sobering to consider that this great building  developed from a small settlement of Saxon hermits headed by the martyred St Werstan and favoured by Edward The Confessor. When the Normans came its fortunes looked up as did its architecture. 

The romanesque arches and heavy pillars are early Norman.

The Benedictines founded what is now the Priory its second and perhaps greatest prior being Walcher of Lorraine. He led a medieval mathematical revolution, observing the phases of the moon using the astrolabe and, with Robert the Lotheringian, he translated key Arabic works as well as Arabic numerals into England. 

The monks were blessed with some beautifully carved misericords allowing them to surreptitiously sit while apparently standing. 

Grotesque face

Witch on broomstick

Green man

The priory was greatly extended in the C15th and benefited from the patronage of both Richard III and Henry VII. The former commissioned the great West window showing Doomsday in stained glass, Henry, the fabulous Magnificat window showing Mary the mother of God in a blue cloud studded in stars.

If you zoom ins, Mary is ensconced in the cloud, (blue wreath) near the top.

It’s even more sobering to consider how close all this was to being obliterated, when Henry VIII dissolved and sold off the monasteries (1536-1540). The Lady Chapel was sold for a £1 and was knocked down, the stone no doubt being cannibalised for other buildings. The Cloisters and South transept were similarly destroyed, the lead removed from the roofs. The Priory Church, however, was saved by the 105 families of Malvern. They petitioned the king and bought it from him for the princely sum of £20. After doing so, there was no money left to adequately maintain it. That was left – like most things – to the Victorians who restored it to its former glory.

One great peculiarity is this magnificent tomb of  John Knotsford, his wife and his daughter. Why peculiar? it holds the corpse of one of the men who destroyed much of the priory before the village bought what was left. Such historical quirks hide stories yet to be told.

The great East window showing the Crucifixion and resurrection and behind you

the West window depicting Judgement day.  On a sunny day, a worshipper would be bathed in the light from both.

In fact where-ever you stood, you'd be bathed in coloured light. Malvern Priory holds the greatest number of late medieval stained glass in the country. God bless those 105 families who raised £20.

And since it was the Victorians who restored it, it seems only proper that on her Golden Jubilee,

Queen Victoria had her own window—her great nephew, the Kaiser in red military uniform stands behind her.  Another quirk of history, I guess.