MALVERN Celebrates Summer is the theme of this year's civic week, which offers opportunities for people to visit locations not usually open to the public and to learn new and stimulating things.

The week's programme will be launched on Saturday, June 25, at 10.30am at an opening ceremony on Belle Vue island by Malvern's deputy mayor Hannah Campbell, with MP Harriett Baldwin in attendance.

This ceremony will be followed by a prize-giving for Malvern Civic Society's school's literary competition, after which the official unveiling of the George Bernard Shaw mulberry tree will take place at noon in Priory Park.

Grown in Malvern, Victoria, Australia, the tree is a descendant of one that the playwright George Bernard Shaw planted in the park in 1936 but which blew down in a storm in 2000.

Among the highlights is a talk on Monday June 27, by bestselling author Paula Byrne about Kathleen Kennedy, sister of John F Kennedy, who became a lively member of London society and married William Cavendish, heir to the Duke of Devonshire.

The following day Ben Cowell, director general of the Historic Houses Association, will give an illustrated talk called Saving Country Houses.

Other events include a gardeners’ question time, featuring BBC panellist Duncan Coombs and well-known local experts, and a number of open gardens.

These include the Victorian Dell House in Malvern Wells, not normally open to the public, which has a garden designed by Gertrude Jekyll, who created around four hundred gardens in the UK, Europe and America.

Little Malvern Court will also be open, providing a chance to see the fourteenth century Prior’s Hall as well as the garden.

There will be a heritage trail treasure hunt and a butterflies-and-bees walk on the hills led by the Conservators, while Malvern Museum will present Bygone Malvern at Elmslie House, Avenue Road.

A plaque will be unveiled in Church Street, which in medieval times was called Spital Way for its hospital or almshouses.

Spokesman Denise Preston said: "There is something for everyone, so please come and join in. As well as being a stimulating programme, it raises money and, over the past five years, some £10,0000 has been raised for charities from sponsorship and the proceeds of various events."

The full programme is available from the Tourist Information Centre and Malvern Theatres, or at malverncivicsociety.org.uk/events_week.