The Malvern Hills are a range of hills in the English counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and a small area of northern Gloucestershire, dominating the surrounding countryside and the towns and villages of the district of Malvern. The highest summit of the hills affords a panorama of the Severn valley with the hills of Herefordshire and the Welsh mountains, parts of thirteen counties, the Bristol Channel, and the cathedrals of Worcester, Gloucester and Hereford. The Malvern Hills have been designated by the Countryside Agency as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which is the most popular free tourist attraction in the West Midlands . In 2006 Worcestershire County Council was awarded £770,000 by the Heritage Lottery Fund for restoration work and preservation of the area. Management of the hills is the responsibility of the Malvern Hills Conservators.

Geography

The Malvern Hills are part of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with scenic views over both Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The Hills run north/south for about , in between Great Malvern and the village of Colwall, and overlook the River Severn valley to the east, with the Cotswolds beyond. The highest point of the hills is the Worcestershire Beacon at above sea level (OS Grid reference SO768452). The hills are famous for their natural mineral springs and wells, which were responsible for the development of Great Malvern as a spa in the early 19th century. Malvern Water is bottled commercially on a large scale and sold worldwide.

There are three passes over the hills, the Wyche cutting, the A438 road north of Raggedstone hill and the A449 road just north of the Herefordshire Beacon, the site of the British Camp, an Iron Age hill fort at the top of the hill. The site is thought to date back before the Common Era and has been extended subsequently by a medieval castle. The extensive earthworks remain clearly visible today and determine the shape of the hill.

Geology

The Malvern Hills are made of some of the most ancient rock in England, mostly igneous and metamorphic rocks from the late pre-Cambrian, around 600 million years old.

There is a tiny cave near the ridge of the hills called Clutter's Cave (or Giant's Cave or Waum's Cave, after the spring which once lay beneath it).

The Hills

A list of the hills in their order from north to south is shown below.

Hill	Elevation (ft)	Elevation (m)
End Hill	1,079 ft	329 m
Table Hill	1,224 ft	373 m
North Hill	1,303 ft	397 m
Sugarloaf Hill	1,207 ft	368 m
Worcestershire Beacon	1,395 ft	425 m
Summer Hill	1,253 ft	382 m
Perseverance Hill	1,066 ft	325 m
Jubilee Hill	1,073 ft	327 m
Pinnacle Hill	1,174 ft	358 m
Black Hill (north)	1,011 ft	308 m
Black Hill (south)	886 ft	270 m
Herefordshire Beacon (British Camp)	1,109 ft	338 m
Millennium Hill	1,073 ft	327 m
Broad Down	958 ft	292 m
Hangman's Hill	906 ft	276 m
Swinyard Hill	889 ft	271 m
Midsummer Hill	932 ft	284 m
Hollybush Hill	794 ft	242 m
Raggedstone Hill (east top)	820 ft	250 m
Raggedstone Hill (west top)	833 ft	254 m
Chase End Hill	625 ft	191 m

A good panorama of the length of the hills can be seen from the M5 Motorway, particularly between Junction 7 Worcester (south) and Junction 9 Tewkesbury . See [44591].

History

The name Malvern is of Brythonic origin and probably derives from moel fryn meaning 'bald hill'. The summits of the hills were excellent defensive points. The Herefordshire Beacon is known as the British Camp, as the remains of a large Iron Age hill fort can be found at the summit. In the Middle Ages the hills were within the royal forest where deer would be hunted. Monks at Great Malvern Priory first bottled the spring water at Holy Well in 1622. This is the earliest record of bottled water in the UK.

Traditionally the line down the spine of the hills has formed the county boundary between Herefordshire and Worcestershire. In 1884 the Malvern Hills Conservators were established through an Act of Parliament to preserve the natural aspect of the hills and protect them from encroachments. However by this time large-scale quarrying had already begun. Quarry works were set in motion in the 1870s at Tank Quarry and at Little Malvern by Pyx Granite Company. The Hills Conservators lobbied parliament to pass an Act limiting the exploitation, and although a second Act was passed in 1924 its provisions were largely ineffective. Quarrying continued until 1966. The landscape itself was irrevocably changed ; but there is some debate whether this has enriched or damaged the ecology of the Hills . Certainly the quarrying has changed the Hills forever, including creating habitats for frogs, toads, newts and other small animals. The new cliffs provide nesting sites for falcons and many other birds. Some parts are used for personality development for children, especially deprived children, and abseiling and rock climbing courses are offered. The quarries, especially North Quarry and Tank Quarry, have over the years been the sites of several accidents requiring the Emergency Services.

Malvern Hills in cultural life

The Malvern Hills were the inspiration and setting for the famous 14th century poem The Visions of Piers Plowman (1362) by William Langland. The earliest poetical allusion to the Malvern Hills occurs in the poem And on a Maye mornynge on Malverne hylles. William Langland, the reputed writer, was possibly educated at the priory of Great Malvern.

English composer Edward Elgar, who was from the area, often walked, cycled, and reportedly flew kites on these hills. He wrote a cantata in 1898 entitled Caractacus, which alludes to the popular legend of his last stand at British Camp. In 1934, during the composer's final illness, he told a friend: "If ever after I'm dead you hear someone whistling this tune [the opening theme of his cello concerto] on the Malvern Hills, don't be alarmed. It's only me."

Composers Herbert Howells and Ivor Gurney used to take long walks together through the nearby Cotswold Hills and the natural beauty of the area, including the magnificent views of the Malverns, was a profound inspiration for their music. Howells dedicated his first major work, the Piano Quartet in A minor (1916), to "the hill at Chosen (Churchdown) and Ivor Gurney who knew it"..

The poet W. H. Auden taught for three years at the The Downs School, Colwall, in the Malvern Hills. He spent three years at the school in the 1930s and wrote some of his finest early love poems there, including: This Lunar Beauty; Let Your Sleeping Head; My Love, Fish in the Unruffled Lakes; and Out on the Lawn I Lie in Bed. He also wrote a long poem about the hills and their views, called simply The Malverns.

'Malvern Hills' is the third short story in Japanese-English author Kazuo Ishiguro's collection Nocturnes (2009).

See also

• Malvern
• Great Malvern
• Malvern Hills Conservators
• Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England
• Malvern Hills District Council

References

It is rumoured that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote parts of both "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" while sitting in the Malvern Hills.

External links

• Malvern Hills AONB Website
• The Malvern Hills at BBC Hereford & Worcester
• Malvern Hills Trail
• Geology of the Malvern Hills