General Malvern Info
Great Malvern is largely Victorian, but its roots go
back much further - Iron and Bronze age forts and tracks
run along the hills and Great Malvern was only a collection
of small cottages until the Middle Ages.
The oldest parts of the town can be seen around the
Priory Church which was founded in 1085 when Benedictine
monks settled here and built a Priory, which was a daughter
house to Westminster Abbey.
Great Malvern originated as a spa village with Therpeutic
qualities attributed to its springs. It was the Georgian
fancy of taking the waters and later the Victorian popularity
of the water cure that transformed Malvern into a spa
town.
Doctors Gully and Wilson brought hydropathy - the water
cure - from Austria and built the first water cure house
in 1845. The growing influx of visitors necessitated
accomodation, information and social recreation to rival
such centres as Bath and Cheltenham. Although Malvern
is no longer a spa town, many of the impressive building
used for the water cure as still in use as public buildings.
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