Little Malvern Court And Priory
When summer arrived for a day (May 3rd) Bill and I joined the crowds visiting the gardens of Little Malvern Court, next to the priory and nestling in the foothills of the Malverns. The gardens are on a slope and feature the five ponds created by the monks to supply fish. There are numerous wild and cultivated flowers and shrubs and the whole effect is very relaxing. The carrot cake for sale with the tea is heartily recommended!
Unfortunately the Court wasn’t open and we needed to make a return visit on either a Wednesday or a Thursday afternoon to go inside and see the remains of the monks living quarters.1 The priory was open though and filled with masses of wild flowers which would all have been familiar to William Langland when he wrote his “Vision of Piers Ploughman” which is based on the priory and the Malverns.
We said hello to Bishop Alcock’s statue in the porch. He was responsible for rebuilding the priory between 1480 and 1482, having sent the monks packing to Gloucester Abbey for correction! It’s such a shame that the window he gave to commemorate the current royal family and himself now lacks many figures - it should show from left to right Richard, Duke of York (missing), Edward, Prince of Wales, Edward IV (missing), Queen Elizabeth (now headless), Princess Elizabeth, and her sisters Cecily, Anne and Katherine, and Bishop Alcock (missing). The bishop’s coat of arms of a mitre and cocks’ heads is in the tracery lights, together with the arms of the King and the Prince of Wales.
Only one other portrait of the princes is known to exist, in Canterbury Cathedral, but there the princes have modern heads.
Founded in 1125, Little Malvern Priory was one of the smallest Benedictine monasteries in the country, never having more than ten or twelve monks at a time. In 1282, Bishop Giffard visited the priory and re-dedicated it to St Mary, St Giles and St John the Evangelist. It was attached to the church in Worcester, a link which continued until the dissolution of the monasteries. The only part of the monastic buildings to survive the dissolution is the eastern part of the medieval house including the prior’s hall or refectory which now forms part of Little Malvern Court.
Since the dissolution the priory and the Court have belonged to the Russell family and then the Beringtons, one of whom married the last Russell heiress early in the eighteenth century. Both were recusant families, and the secret chapel under the roof is now on show when you visit the court.
Bishop Alcock, born in Beverley in 1430, was Bishop of Worcester from 1476 to 1486 and tutor to Edward IV’s sons from 1476 to 1483. He was with Prince Edward at Ludlow when news of his father’s death reached them. It has been suggested that Alcock changed his allegiance from the Woodville party to Richard, Duke of Gloucester, but did not accompany Prince Edward to London. Nor did he support Buckingham’s revolt. When the revolt failed due to bad weather preventing a crossing of the Severn some of Buckingham’s supporters are said to have taken refuge in the priory. Alcock survived Richard’s reign successfully and was accepted and promoted by Henry VII to Archbishop of Ely when Morton became Archbishop of Canterbury. He died in Wisbech Castle in 1500.
Alcock is supposed to have been responsible for the appointment of Sir Reginald Bray, born in St John Bedwardine Worcester, the second son of Sir Richard Bray who is buried in the north aisle of Worcester Cathedral. Bray designed the Prince Arthur Chantry in the cathedral and is shown in the north window of the Jesus chapel in Great Malvern Priory, parts of which he also designed.
John Russell of Bedwardine, Worcester, applied to buy the estate in 1537.2 His father had been clerk of the kitchen to Katherine, Duchess of Bedford, sister of Elizabeth Woodville, and he had served on the council of the household of Mary Tudor when she was living in semi-banishment at Tickenhill Palace, Bewdley, and was currently secretary to the Council of the Marches. He died before full ownership was granted to his son Henry by Queen Mary in 1554. Initially the estate also included the monasteries at Haughmond in Shropshire and at Hailes in Gloucestershire, but these properties were sold before 1694.
Anne Neville is supposed to have taken shelter in the priory with Queen Margaret after the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471. Tradition states that they fled to Paynes Place near Bushley, then to a monastery on the other side of the river - Little Malvern Priory. Also with them were Lady Catherine Vaux and the Countess of Devonshire. They were found by Sir William Stanley who conducted them to the King at either Worcester or Coventry.
Our return visit to go inside the Court featured more extreme British weather - on Wednesday 2 June torrential storms interspersed with bright sunshine swept across the area. We managed to see what had changed in the gardens during one sunny interval, and were very grateful to be inside the Court during the rain, even though it was leaking into the small room in which we sat for the talk about the Court!
The walls of the prior’s hall still bear traces of Bishop Alcock’s repair work and the roof is the original medieval one. There is a beautiful reredos at one end, parts of which date from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The painting of Stafford being blessed by Archbishop Laud once hung in Lancaster House, and there is another painting showing the Stafford painting hanging on the wall at Lancaster House. We were also able to see the chapel, once hidden under the roof of the house. The long table in the hall came from Strensham Court. Outside on the wall is a statue of St Giles with his fawn, carved by Dr James Richardson, who also made the statue of Bishop Alcock, based on a portrait in Jesus College, Cambridge, one of his foundations.
1 The Court is open on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons from mid-April to mid-July.
2 The Russells of Worcester were descended from a cadet branch of the Russells of Strensham.
The bells of Bordesley Abbey were sold at the dissolution of the monasteries; William Sheldon bought a little bell for St Leonard’s Beoley, (see next article), and John Russell of Strensham bought three bells to hang in the tower of St John the Baptist, Strensham. His grandson later married Elizabeth Sheldon.
Details from “Not the Least: the Story of Little Malvern” by Ronald Bryer.