Distance: 10.6 miles
Difficulty of the terrain: medium
Get the Route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
Walk from the heart of Worcester across the River Severn and River Teme to Great Malvern, before crossing the rural Severn Vale.
The Story
The Walk
Getting Back
Worcestershire’s Riviera
Whilst it has ancient, and indeed mystical, origins; the south west Worcestershire town of Malvern is primarily a creation of the early and mid 19th Century when it was a popular spa.
Charles Darwin, who was plagued by various ailments throughout his later life, when he was a famous scientist, and who also had sickly children, used to travel from Kent to Malvern to take the waters. Being one of the famous Victorians alongside Thomas Caryle, Florence Nightingale and Alfred Lord Tennyson, who visited Malvern to take the waters. Alongside thousands of less celebrated people, including factory hands on one day holiday excursions from as far away as Manchester, and somewhat more wealthy patrons who stayed in one of dozens of hotels and guesthouses.
At the end of the 19th Century the popularity of water cures declined, and while Malvern remained a popular tourist destination, many of the hotels and guesthouses were turned in private schools and nursing homes, industries which remained mainstays of Malvern’s economy throughout the 20th Century, and which persist to an extent, into the present day.
In fittingly Victorian fashion it is strung out along its railway line which runs from Hereford to London Paddington via Worcester and Oxford. Something doubtless also encouraged by the town’s position at the foot of the majestic and iconic Malvern Hills.
It was this railway line, and the lure of those hills, which used to bring J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis to the town for Weekend holidays. One of which it is reputed gave rise to the inspiration for The Chronicles of Narnia. Arguably the mise en scène as a whole, along with many other locations across the Midlands, provided inspiration for aspects of the Middle Earth books.
Malvern is in fact several towns joined together in a mini conurbation each with quite a different character. It has three town centres. Malvern Link is where much of the town’s population live, however; Great Malvern the historical heart of the spa is undoubtedly the town centre.
In addition to grand Victorian buildings, including inns, former spa hotels and a small but impressive railway station is Great Malvern Priory. Once home to a religious order, since the Reformation in the 1530s it has been the town’s main church. Few traces of the Monastic past remain besides the church itself, but there is a truly spectacular Priory gate.
Another impressive building, on private land so not generally accessible, is the Malvern Sports Dome. This was constructed between 1977 and 1978 by what was then Malvern Girls College, which is mostly based in the former Imperial Hotel beside Great Malvern Railway Station. These days after several mergers with other Malvern girls schools, the structure remains a private school sport hall to this day. Designed by architect Michael Godwin, with John Faber of Oscar Faber as structure engineer and NorWest Holst Construction as advisors, the sports hall is notable for being the sole application of Dante Bini’s Binishell technique to the construction of a structure in the UK. The Binishell method sees a thick construction membrane being inflated on site, and then concrete poured over the membrane to create a study geodesic shell. If done with care and successfully it quickly creates a very durable, flexible structure. At Malvern the sports hall sits in the middle of a small artificial lake and these days, nearly 50 years after it was built it is a Grade II listed structure, in honour of how unique and interesting it is.
Above Great Malvern stands the Worcestershire Beacon. Made of Pre-Cambrian rock which is 600 million years old, and 425 metres above sea level at its highest point, it is the tallest peak in the Malvern Hills range and the highest point in Worcestershire. The town nestles on the lower slopes and in its shadow.
The Walk
Get the route: via Ordnance Survey Maps or download the GPX. file from Dropbox
I create the Walk Midlands routes via Ordnance Survey Maps Explorer enabling me to take them on my phone. Subscribe yourself via the banner above.
The walk from the heart of Worcester across the River Severn and River Teme to Great Malvern, before crossing the rural Severn Valley, begins from Worcester Foregate Street Railway Station.
Upon exiting Foregate Street Railway Station turn left walking along High Street deeper into Worcester city centre.
Cross over two roads which join with High Street.
Presently coming level with Broad Street running off High Street to the right, cross over the road and head to the right along Broad Street.
Continue down Broad Street which is pedestrianised past the Crowngate Shopping Centre.
Upon reaching the busy western part of Broad Street, cross over the road, then turn right.
At the corner turn left heading for Worcester Bridge which carries the A44 across the River Severn.
Walk straight across Worcester Bridge with its famous view of Worcester’s relatively small, but very picturesque and strikingly situated, medieval cathedral.
On the far side of Worcester bridge turn left. Here there is a gate onto a riverside walkway which you pass through.
Keep on walking straight along the tarmac path, known as Bromwich Parade beside the Severn on the far side of the gate.
Carry on for quite some distance passing Diglis Canal Basin where the Worcester and Birmingham Canal joins the Severn and recently installed Diglis Island Fish Bypass.
Presently after quite some way you reach the white suspension bridge which carries pedestrians and cyclists over the Severn.
To the left here there are some oxidised metal sculptures of figures from Worcester’s history, including the Civil Wars, while straight ahead a footpath, now unpaved runs past the bridge along the bank of the River Severn.
Continue along the path straight past the bridge.
Soon you reach a metal gate which you pass through.
On the far side carry on straight ahead following the path beside the Severn through a field. To your right as you walk there are great views of the Malvern Hills.
Carry on straight along the path, which is always pretty clear, straight along the banks of the Severn for some distance.
After some distance you pass through another metal gate and continue along the path on the far side.
Presently at the point where the Teme converges with the Severn, next to a sign board explaining about the Parliamentary pontoon bridge during the Battle of Worcester, the path turns sharply to the right, running parallel with the Teme along the edge of a field.
Continue along this path for quite some distance.
Soon you pass through a metal gate and continue walking around the edge of the fields a little further.
Presently the path, which has bypassed a sharp bend in the River Teme, curves sharply to the right.
Past this bend carry on straight ahead around the edge of the fields.
You cross several narrow fields passing through another series of gates. One very homemade looking.
Soon you reach another gate leading into a field where you take a sight left to pick up the path.
Here you reach a further metal gate leading to a path across a narrow meadow, which you follow walking straight ahead to the far side.
At the top of this meadow the path leads through a gate out into a large meadow.
Through the gate the chimney of the old Powick Power Station, now flats, and the arch of the new bridge are clearly visible.
Walk straight ahead across the meadow.
On the far side of the meadow, to the left there is a gate leading through onto a path leading down beneath an arch of the new bridge.
Carry on across a small meadow on the far side of the bridge now nearing the old power station.
Through a gate on the far side of the meadow turn left to reach Powick Old Bridge. Potentially the site of the “first and last shots of the British Civil Wars”.
Usually you could just walk across it to reach the Powick side of the River Teme. However, the closure when I walked the route led me to walk up the lane from the pumping station, turn right on the A449 and walk along the main road to cross the new Powick Bridge.
Just after crossing either bridge across the Teme you reach the impressive new cycleway bridge over the busy A449 and A4440 junction.
Once Powick Old Bridge is restored it will be straight ahead along the path leading away from the western bank of the River Teme. From the top you can clearly see Powick village just in front of you.
Head up and over this bridge.
The bridge and its access ramp brings you down onto the pavement leading into Powick along the side of the A449.
Upon reaching the road turn right and begin walking towards the village. On the far side of the road there is a curry house named “Cromwell’s” after the victor of the Battle of Worcester in 1651.
Approaching Powick village along the A449 look out on the left hand side of the road just past the Cromwell curry house for a footpath waymark pointing through a metal gate into a field. Once on the far side of the road and into the field walk along an embankment towards the low wooded hillside where Powick church stands.
Head uphill through the trees and across Powick churchyard to reach a gate which leads to a muddy farm track out into open fields. You get your first clear glimpse of the Malverns to your west on the right as you walk.
Continue along this track past a sewage works. Just after the sewage works you join the Three Choirs Way, marked with the sign of three musical staves, heading right towards the Malvern Hills.
Soon you reach the road through the village of Stanbrook near the larger village of Callow End.
Cross the road and follow a path around the edge of the grounds of the former Stanbrook Abbey, now a hotel.
Soon you reach another road and turn right up a short stretch of driveway past a couple of cottages at the far end of the abbey’s grounds.
This ends in a tree lined holloway which runs uphill.
At the top of the hill the trees peter out, and you continue along the path past a scattering of houses, before descending steadily downhill.
You follow the path heading steadily left until you reach the Old Hills estate.
Walk up Old Hills through trees and scrub until you reach the summit. Once on the top walk straight ahead until you reach a trig point.
On reaching the trig turn right and descend Old Hills, crossing some parkland to reach a gate leading out into open fields.
Follow the path across the fields, soon turning left and approaching woodland.
After crossing the woodland the path curves to the right following the Madresbrook towards the Madresfield Estate.
Nearing Madresfield Court there is a stile into a large paddock which you walk across.
On the far side of the paddock there is a paved path which leads you through the Court’s grounds. Madresfield Court was a grand house during the inter-war era, one believed to have inspired the setting for Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited.
Soon the path turns into a driveway which leads to the road through Madresfield village. Upon reaching the road turn left, picking up a footpath running to the right across a house’s driveway and through a paddock. Malvern and the hills rising behind it now loom large in the middle distance.
Follow the farm track on the far side of the paddock and head into woodland.
Across a grass verge and some scrubby screening trees you arrive at the retail and trading estate which forms Malvern’s eastern fringe.
Cross the road defining Malvern’s eastern edge and head up a footpath on the far side. This path wends its way into the town through clusters of warehouse units.
You emerge near the Morgan car factory and continue up to a road which you cross before heading up a snicket on the right which cuts across a modern housing estate.
On reaching Malvern Link Common you pick up a footpath which runs straight up towards Great Malvern town centre, passing beneath the Worcester to Hereford railway line.
Past the railway continue walking across the open part of the common, heading steadily uphill.
At the top of Link Common now on the edge of Great Malvern town centre, cross the road, and then head left uphill all a residential road behind the Nags Head pub.
Upon reaching the top of the road you are in Great Malvern town centre. Turn left here and walk along the main road into the small central square at the top of the high street near to Great Malvern Priory.
This is where the walk ends.
Getting Back
At the time of writing in December 2025 Malvern was served by hourly trains north east to Birmingham via Worcester, Droitwich and Bromsgrove and south west to Hereford via Colwall and Ledbury. There are also trains south west towards Bristol and south east towards London across the Cotswolds via Oxford. There are also half hourly buses to Worcester on weekdays and Saturdays throughout the day and less frequent buses to other destinations in Worcestershire and Herefordshire.