The Malvern Museum in Great Malvern

Great Malvern

Great Malvern is an area of Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is the historical centre of the town, and the location of the headquarters buildings of the of Malvern Town Council, the governing body of the Malvern civil parish, and Malvern Hills District council of the county of...

, the town centre of Malvern, Worcestershire

Malvern, Worcestershire

Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, governed by Malvern Town Council. As of the 2001 census it has a population of 28,749, and includes the historical settlement and commercial centre of Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, and the former...

, England, is located in the Abbey Gateway, the former gateway to the Great Malvern Priory

Great Malvern Priory

Great Malvern Priory in Malvern, Worcestershire, England, was a Benedictine monastery c.1075-1540 and is now an Anglican parish church.-History:...

. The museum was established in 1979 and is owned and managed by the Malvern Museum Society Ltd, a registered charity. The Priory Gatehouse was a gift to the museum in 1980 from the de Vere Group, 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 artifacts and archeological findings dating from the Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

 hill fort at the British Camp

British Camp

The British Camp is an Iron Age hill fort located at the top of Herefordshire Beacon in the Malvern Hills. The fort is thought to have been first constructed in the 2nd century BC...

, to recent history. A series of rooms depicts different periods of history and include life-like displays and information boards. Themes covered include natural history, Malvern Priory, Malvern Forest and Chase, life in Victorian

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

 Malvern, Edward Elgar

Edward Elgar

Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...

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

Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy, involves the use of water for pain-relief and treating illness. The term hydrotherapy itself is synonymous with the term water cure as it was originally marketed by practitioners and promoters in the 19th century...

 using Malvern water

Malvern Water

Malvern water is a natural spring water from the Malvern Hills on the border of the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire in England. The Hills consist of very hard granite and limestone rock. Fissures in the rock retain rain water, which slowly permeates through, escaping at the springs...

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

Radar

Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

 by TRE

TRE

TRE might stand for:*3 , a mobile operator in Sweden*Tampere, a city in Finland*Telecommunications Research Establishment, British radar research organization...

, and Morgan Motor Company

Morgan Motor Company

The Morgan Motor Company is a British motor car manufacturer. The company was founded in 1910 by Harry Frederick Stanley Morgan, generally known as "HFS" and was run by him until he died, aged 77, in 1959. Peter Morgan, son of H.F.S., ran the company until a few years before his death in 2003...

 cars.

The museum is open daily, 10.30 to 17.00, from 25 March to 31 October (closed Wednesdays except for school visits during term time).

Priory gatehouse

Locally referred to as the Abbey Gateway, it was built around 1430 and is the second oldest building in Malvern after the Norman priory church. The gatehouse is the only remaining building of the 12th century Benedictine monastery that was dismantled in 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

 by King Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

.