Malvern Priory to Worcester Cathedral Pilgrimage - 13 miles - Christmas Special

Join us on this 13 mile Christmas Pilgrimage between the beautiful Malvern Priory and the magnificent Worcester Cathedral, we will be lucky enough to see both buildings at there festive finest.

This is a linear walk, we will be parking at Great Malvern train station (£2.50 parking _ all day), finishing the walk in Worcester. It will be a short 11 minuete train journey back to Malvern on a local train.

Please pay £5.00 to Paypal [email protected] (mention Broadway Christmas Full Moon walk). Choose friends and family option.

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Steven Massey
55669924
04-00-04
This payment is non-refundable. It will only be refunded in the event of a cancellation or a movement of date due to Covid restrictions.

In recent years their has been an explosion of interest in Pilgrimages and old Pilgramage routes, partly due to the popularity of the Camino De Santiago and many other pilgrimages.
The British Pilgrimage Trust - https://www.britishpilgrimage.org/ has been doing sterling work researching and even writing a book on old British Pilgrimage routes, and one of them is Malvern to Worcester. Plus Pilgrimage sounds cooler than hike or walk, so I am going to use it the title to this walk!

You may be religious, you may be non religious, you may be on a spiritual quest, you might be interested in none of that and just fascinated by the history of it all - you are all welcome on this hike.

We will start this hike at Great Malvern train station car park at 9am. It is then a short walk to the Great Malvern Priory (c.1075-1540) https://www.greatmalvernpriory.org.uk/
A former Benedictine Monastery, the quality of the Priory's medieval stained glass windows are supposed to be second only to York minster. We will take some time exploring inside and outside this beautiful building. I will also show you the grave of little Anne Darwin, daughter of Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin brought his daughter Anne to Malvern in the hope that the natural and pure Malvern spring water would help his daughter get over her illnesses, unfortunatley it did't and she is buried in the grounds of the Priory.

We will then leave Malvern via it's eastern side and Malvern Common. It won't be long before the group will be passing the grounds of the Madresfield Estate.
https://www.madresfield.co.uk/

We will follow The Three Choirs Way for a while till we get to our lunch stop, the top of the Old Hills. A small group of hills with a trig point and benches at he top. We will have great views here of the Malvern Hills behind us and our final destination, Worcester Cathedral, in front of us.

Next place of interest on this route is Stanbrook Abbey . The original Stanbrook Hall, of which Bride’s Manor is all that remains, was built for its owner, Richard Case, in 1755. Stanbrook Hall was later purchased on behalf of the Second English Benedictine Congregation of Nuns who went on to reside at the property from 1838 to 2009. Alas, all the Nuns left in 2009, is now a luxury hotel and event space.

Before we reach Worcester, we will pass through the village of Powick. I will bore you here with lots of facts about the English Civil War (1642-1651). Church of St Peter and St Lawrence, dating from the thirteenth century, is actually covered in mucket shot holes to this day, evidence of it being caught up in the fighting in the final battle of 1651. Many people know that Powick and Worcester were the locations of the final battle in 1651, remarkably the first shots of the whole conflict were fired in a skirmish between Royalist and Parliamentarian forces in 1642 on Powick Bridge. Lovely old Powick Bridge still stands and we will walk over it.

We then walk along the River Teme past more battlefield sites and memorial plaques before we connect with the River Severn, Britain's longest river.

It's then the case of following the River Severn into Worcester and our final destination - Worcester Cathedral (c. 1084 - 1504).

We will spend some time exploring the Cathedral. https://www.worcestercathedral.org.uk/
It is famous for it's Norman crypt and unique chapter house, it's unusual Transitional Gothic bays, it's fine woodwork and it's 'exquisite central tower. The Cathedral contains the tomb of King John.

Then it is a short walk to Worcester Foregate Street train station to get one of the frequent trains back to Malvern.
The train tickets are £7. I have led this walk a couple of times before and some people last time worked out that it was infact cheaper to jump into taxis in groups. We can discuss this at the time. Whatever happens we will make sure everyone gets back their cars in Malvern.

Being a Christmas Pilgrimage, Christmas jumpers, hats and decorations are very welcome.

Also for our lunch break feel free to bring mince pies or any other Christmas goodies to share.

Entrance to the Priory and Cathedral are free but donations are very welcome. If you can please bring some change for both.

Dress for winter, this walk is in December, bring plenty of layers. Walking boots required, we will be walking over several muddy fields and riverside paths.