After spending the morning exploring Selly Oaks we drove down to Malvern from Birmingham to explore the old abandoned prep school. Of all the places I have visited while exploring this has to be the best for the scenery, absolutely stunning
After a bit of fannying about gaining access and walked about inside we were surprised how much renovation work had happened to the place. Walls, radiators, pipework etc. ripped out and the place stripped to its bare bones. We soon realised there wasnt a lot left here apart from the piano and wall of mirrors
We shot all we wanted to apart from the turqoise skylight but couldnt find it. Eventually after climbing down a collapsed staircase and across rotten floorboards we found it, just a shame I hadnt bought the wide angle lens before I came here lol
Following Malvern's prominence as a spa town in the earlier years of the nineteenth century and the advent of the railway, Malvern College was founded by a group of mainly local businessmen. It opened in January 1865 to two dozen boys and half a dozen masters. Initially, there were two Houses but expansion was rapid and by 1877 there were six Houses and 290 boys. In the 1890s, the number of pupils nearly doubled and a further four Houses were added, thus creating the broad outlines of the campus familiar to us today. Originally housed in the Main Building, a separate Chapel was also built during the 1890s.
The Chapel records over 600 Old Malvernians and Hillstonians who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars. Further expansion of pupil numbers and buildings continued after the Great War but during the Second World War the College suffered more than any other comparable independent school, being twice ejected and shrinking to half its former size. Required to make way for the Admiralty between October 1939 and July 1940, it found a temporary home at Blenheim Palace. The College underwent a further period of exile from May 1942 to July 1946. Ordered out at one week's notice, the school was housed with Harrow School.
The College's premises were then occupied by the Telecommunications and Radar establishment, and there is more than a grain of truth in echoing Eton's Waterloo claim that the Second World War was won on the playing fields of Malvern College; indeed, the modern Defence Research Agency is still sited on former College land. Since 1946, the College has continued to build new facilities - Medical Centre 1967, Arts Centre 1974, Sports Hall 1977, Technology Building 1992 - and has also played a significant role in the development of educational projects. In 1963, it was the first independent school to have a language laboratory, it pioneered Nuffield Physics in the 1960s, Science in Society in the 1970s, and the Diploma of Achievement in the 1990s.
Today's co-educational College came about in 1992 when three successful schools (Malvern College, Ellerslie Girls' School and Hillstone Prep) were brought together. Also at the beginning of the 1990s, Malvern continued to be at the forefront of innovation by being one of the first schools in Britain to offer the International Baccalaureate in the Sixth Form.
Over the last twenty years Malvern College has shown itself to offer all that is best in co-education. The ratio of boys to girls is presently 60:40, and the College has remained a proper boarding school with over 500 pupils on campus during the weekends. In recent years, the College has embarked upon the most significant period of development since its foundation almost 150 years ago including an All Weather Pitch in 2005, the refurbishment of the Pavilion, with the addition of 12 new classrooms, in 2006 a new Medical Centre in 2009, two new boarding houses (No.7 and Ellerslie House) in 2010, a new state-of-the-art Sports Complex and Entertainment Centre in 2010 and the refurbishment of the Ron Hughes Rackets Courts 2011. In addition, a programme of House refurbishment is underway. In 2008 Hillstone Prep merged with the Downs Prep School at the Downs’ Colwall site, which has been transformed with the development of new classrooms, sports hall, all weather pitch, and art room, along with a refurbishment of the boarding facilities, to create a first class prep school which now is The Downs Malvern
After a bit of fannying about gaining access and walked about inside we were surprised how much renovation work had happened to the place. Walls, radiators, pipework etc. ripped out and the place stripped to its bare bones. We soon realised there wasnt a lot left here apart from the piano and wall of mirrors
We shot all we wanted to apart from the turqoise skylight but couldnt find it. Eventually after climbing down a collapsed staircase and across rotten floorboards we found it, just a shame I hadnt bought the wide angle lens before I came here lol
History
Following Malvern's prominence as a spa town in the earlier years of the nineteenth century and the advent of the railway, Malvern College was founded by a group of mainly local businessmen. It opened in January 1865 to two dozen boys and half a dozen masters. Initially, there were two Houses but expansion was rapid and by 1877 there were six Houses and 290 boys. In the 1890s, the number of pupils nearly doubled and a further four Houses were added, thus creating the broad outlines of the campus familiar to us today. Originally housed in the Main Building, a separate Chapel was also built during the 1890s.
The Chapel records over 600 Old Malvernians and Hillstonians who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars. Further expansion of pupil numbers and buildings continued after the Great War but during the Second World War the College suffered more than any other comparable independent school, being twice ejected and shrinking to half its former size. Required to make way for the Admiralty between October 1939 and July 1940, it found a temporary home at Blenheim Palace. The College underwent a further period of exile from May 1942 to July 1946. Ordered out at one week's notice, the school was housed with Harrow School.
The College's premises were then occupied by the Telecommunications and Radar establishment, and there is more than a grain of truth in echoing Eton's Waterloo claim that the Second World War was won on the playing fields of Malvern College; indeed, the modern Defence Research Agency is still sited on former College land. Since 1946, the College has continued to build new facilities - Medical Centre 1967, Arts Centre 1974, Sports Hall 1977, Technology Building 1992 - and has also played a significant role in the development of educational projects. In 1963, it was the first independent school to have a language laboratory, it pioneered Nuffield Physics in the 1960s, Science in Society in the 1970s, and the Diploma of Achievement in the 1990s.
Today's co-educational College came about in 1992 when three successful schools (Malvern College, Ellerslie Girls' School and Hillstone Prep) were brought together. Also at the beginning of the 1990s, Malvern continued to be at the forefront of innovation by being one of the first schools in Britain to offer the International Baccalaureate in the Sixth Form.
Over the last twenty years Malvern College has shown itself to offer all that is best in co-education. The ratio of boys to girls is presently 60:40, and the College has remained a proper boarding school with over 500 pupils on campus during the weekends. In recent years, the College has embarked upon the most significant period of development since its foundation almost 150 years ago including an All Weather Pitch in 2005, the refurbishment of the Pavilion, with the addition of 12 new classrooms, in 2006 a new Medical Centre in 2009, two new boarding houses (No.7 and Ellerslie House) in 2010, a new state-of-the-art Sports Complex and Entertainment Centre in 2010 and the refurbishment of the Ron Hughes Rackets Courts 2011. In addition, a programme of House refurbishment is underway. In 2008 Hillstone Prep merged with the Downs Prep School at the Downs’ Colwall site, which has been transformed with the development of new classrooms, sports hall, all weather pitch, and art room, along with a refurbishment of the boarding facilities, to create a first class prep school which now is The Downs Malvern
