Last year I visited great Malvern and made straight to the magnificent priory to have a look around once inside I was impressed by the roof and the stained glass windows, but I think it was the massive round columns that grabbed my attention the most. Great Malvern itself is a nice place to visit in the past it attracted a host of famous people from royalty both foreign and domestic to writers and artists and musicians. It is this last profession that is perhaps most associated with the town in the person of Edward Elgar he lived in the area for most of his life, his favourite tea room the Bluebird is still there today.
CS Lewis and Jr Tolkien walked the Malvern hills together and both found inspiration here for their respective works. The hills were the white mountains of Gondor for Tolkien and it is said that one snowy night on their way back from a pub CS Lewis saw a lampost and remarked to Tolkien that it made a good opening for a novel. I was just walking back to my car through the priory grounds and what did I see?.
