A celebration of Malvern’s history and culture has raised hundreds of pounds for community groups.

Midsummer Malvern 2023 finished on Saturday, July 1 with a walk around Great Malvern Station in the morning and the unveiling of a plaque to Alice Betteridge in the evening.

Members of Malvern Civic Society were joined by Duncan Bridges, chief executive of the Malvern Hills Trust.

Midsummer Malvern aims to engage with the local community and encourage local groups to communicate.

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This year has been most successful in achieving this aim with money raised and donations made to a number of organisations:

• Malvern Priory Floor Levelling Fund £500

• Jenny Lind Singers £500

• Wedderburn Road History Group £115

• Great Malvern Cemetery Friends £170

• Great Malvern Station Friends £195

• Friends of Malvern Priory £30

The civic society thanked Malvern Hills District Council, Grange Farm Nursery, Elmslie House, Elgar Court and the Great Malvern Hotel for their support.

Last but not least, a number of people have joined the Society and taken part in the various Midsummer Malvern activities and we welcome them; this brings the total membership to nearly four hundred.

Events were well supported and there is demand to stage them again in the near future.

The festival opened on Saturday, June 24 when chairman Andrew Huntley welcomed members and friends to Great Malvern Priory.

Malvern mayor Clive Hooper formally opened the week, which was the 12th time the Malvern Civic Society had curated a week-long programme of community activities.

Barbara Jones-Williams, chairman of the district council, presented the Society Annual Architectural Awards to Richard Simmonds of the Brays development and David and Sandra Hinton of Benholme, Malvern Wells.

The keynote talk was a presentation by Ian Green, chairman of Oxford Civic Society, who was a member of a task force sponsored by the Historic Towns Forum and Historic England into the ways in which historic towns address the sometimes conflicting priorities of growth and heritage.