I just realised I had never posted this photo of the statue of Edward Elgar and a representation of Enigma which I took when we were in Great Malvern last year.

Great Malvern was, of course, Elgar’s birthplace.

I did feature his statue in Worcester here.

Yesterday I mentioned the mediæval Priory in Great Malvern.

Here it is from its grounds:-

And this is a view over some rooftops from just about the top of the climb up.

On the way out I noticed a War Memorial situated in front of Great Malvern Library (which is a nice building itself.) There are no names on the memorial. There is instead an inscription to “those who served” which is refreshing as it could be taken to refer also to the Bevin Boys who were called up to work in the mines and some of whom died down there.

The day we visited Great Malvern…..

Well, we didn’t really see the Malvern Hills: only the mist/clouds rolling all over them. We hadn’t realised the town would be about 1/4 of the way up them and the town itself is strange. We came in from the Worcester end where first there’s a lower bit on the level with a few shops we didn’t stop at and then you go higher and eventually reach the main centre.

We followed the signs to a car park and discovered it was a fairly steep climb to the shops.

I saw this after we’d rounded what is, I think, a swimming pool complex:-

It looked to me as if it might be deco.

This is the first part of the frontage. It’s a theatre (or perhaps two – see the bit to the right of the photo which is an older building.)

This bit, just round the right hand corner of the near frontage, clinched it. Definitely deco. The railings on the roof line are nice (but may be modern.)

After some more climbing (past a mediæval Priory) we came on a second hand book shop where the good lady made a couple of purchases, then up once more to the main street.

The building straight ahead has aspects of deco but probably isn’t.

Right along the street which curves to the left in the above was this row of shops.

There is some fine detailing round and above a doorway about 3/4 of the way along them.

Coming back along we dropped into an Amnesty International charity shop and I bought two books. (The good lady’s haul was considerably larger.) Going down towards the car park I took two photos of the building which now houses Iceland’s outlet in Great Malvern. From the way it looks I think it may once have been a Burton’s.

I couldn’t really get it in one shot. Here’s the detail.