Great Malvern Priory Church

A Bit of History…

The priory was founded in the 11th century, some time around 1075 – 1085, in an area of Worcestershire that at the time would have been a remote densely wooded forest. What we see today is the 11th-century monastic church which has survived as the parish church for the town of Great Malvern.

Malvern Priory was dissolved in the mid-16th century during Henry VIII‘s Dissolution of the Monasteries. However, the residents of the town purchased the priory church to replace their own parish church, while the rest of the priory buildings were either leased or sold off, often to be demolished.

The core of the surviving priory church is the Norman architecture which can be seen in the nave. But much of the building we see now dates from a major rebuilding that happened in the 15th century. From this time date the chancel and its enormous east window, dating to around 1440. The tower was complete by 1460 by the same team of masons responsible for Gloucester Cathedral.

The church also contains a fine collection of stained glass dating from the 15th century onwards, together with a superb collection of carved misericords from the 14th and 15th centuries.

Set around the ambulatory are an amazing collection of medieval wall and floor tiles, made between 1453 – 1458. There are over 1000 tiles, representing the largest single collection of medieval floor and wall tiles in any English church.