The Malvern Museum in

Great Malvern Great Malvern is an area of the spa town of Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the eastern flanks of the Worcestershire Beacon and North Hill, and ...

, the town centre of

Malvern, Worcestershire Malvern is a spa town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England. It lies at the foot of the Malvern Hills, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The centre of Malvern, Great Malvern, is a historic conservation area, which gre ...

, England, is located in the Priory Gatehouse, the former gateway to the

Great Malvern Priory Great Malvern Priory in Malvern, Worcestershire, England, was a Benedictine monastery (c. 1075 – 1540) and is now an Anglican parish church. In 1949 it was designated a Grade I listed building. It is a dominant building in the Great Malvern ...

. The museum was established in 1979 and is owned and managed by the Malvern Museum Society Ltd, a

registered charity A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

. The Priory Gatehouse was a gift to the museum in 1980 from the

de Vere Group De Vere is a hotels and leisure business, which until the late 1990s was a brewing company known as Greenall's. It used to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. History Greenall's Brewery was ...

, the owners of the neighbouring Abbey Hotel, and is staffed by volunteers. As such, the building itself is the museum's major exhibit. Among the museum's exhibits are many local artefacts and archaeological findings dating from the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

hill fort at the British Camp, to recent history. A series of rooms depicts different periods of history and include lifelike displays and information boards. Themes covered include natural history, Malvern Priory, Malvern Forest and Chase, life in Victorian Malvern,

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

, the Malvern Festival, the history of the local economy including the 19th century

hydrotherapy Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy and also called water cure, is a branch of alternative medicine (particularly naturopathy), occupational therapy, and physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and treatment. The term ...

using Malvern water (instrumental in the settlement's rapid growth from a village to a large town), the development of

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...

by TRE, and

Morgan Motor Company The Morgan Motor Company is a British motor car manufacturer owned by Italian investment group Investindustrial. It was founded in 1910 by Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan. Morgan is based in Malvern Link, an area of Malvern, and employs a ...

cars. The museum is open daily, 10.30 to 17.00, from 25 March to 31 October.

Priory Gatehouse

Erroneously referred to as the Abbey Gateway, the Priory Gatehouse was built in the late 15th century, and is the second oldest building in Great Malvern after the Norman Priory Church. The Gatehouse was the main entrance into the Priory, and is one of the few monastic buildings to survive the Dissolution of Great Malvern Priory in 1539. In 1544 the Gatehouse was sold to William Pynnocke, who sold it a year later to John Knotsford. During the Elizabethan period it passed by marriage to the Savage family, who held it until 1774. In the 19th century the Gatehouse was used as offices for solicitors, architects, and estate agents, and its upper floor served as a venue for the Malvern Police Court.

References

External links

Official Museum website
{{Authority control History museums in Worcestershire Buildings and structures in Malvern, Worcestershire Museums in Worcestershire Local museums in Worcestershire Museums established in 1979 1979 establishments in England Gates in England Gatehouses (architecture)