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Malvern Hills, district, administrative county of Worcestershire, western England. The district lies almost entirely within the historic county of Worcestershire, except for a small area between Leigh Sinton and Acton Green that belongs to the historic county of Herefordshire. Its dominant physical feature is the heath-covered Malvern Hills, trending north-south along its western border. Great Malvern, the chief town and administrative centre, is a market and resort town and a local cultural centre with some light industry.
The name Malvern derives from moel bryn (Celtic: “bare hill”). The hills include a narrow ridge 9 miles (14 km) long that attains an elevation of 1,395 feet (425 metres) and comprises granite and gneiss. Parts of the district are underlain by hard bands of old red sandstone (a geologic formation of the Devonian Period [about 420 to 360 million years ago]), but in the east a more fertile lowland is drained by the River Severn. Glaciers of the Pleistocene Epoch (about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago) moving from the west deposited extensive amounts of unstratified drift (including sands, clays, and gravels) throughout the area. The district is largely agricultural. The annual Malvern Festival in Great Malvern commemorates the composer Sir Edward Elgar and the playwright George Bernard Shaw. Area 223 square miles (577 square km). Pop. (2001) 72,172; (2011) 74,631.
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Worcestershire, administrative and historic county of west-central England. It is located in the western portion of the Midlands region southwest of West Midlands metropolitan county. The city of Worcester is the county seat. The administrative county of Worcestershire comprises six districts: Bromsgrove,…
England, predominant constituent unit of the United Kingdom, occupying more than half of the island of Great Britain. Outside the British Isles, England is often erroneously considered synonymous with the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales) and even with the entire United Kingdom. Despite the political, economic,…
Herefordshire, unitary authority and historic county that covers a roughly circular area in the Welsh borderland of west-central England. The city of Hereford, in the centre of the unitary authority, is the administrative centre. The historic county includes…