Planning a wedding in the beautiful Malvern Hills.
Over the hills the sun is setting, lighting up the tops of the corn fields with bright gold. The green rolling landscape is dotted with trees, silhouetted against the sky. This is one of the most picturesque places in England, and one of the most romantic in which to get married.
There are many considerations when choosing where you want to get married, and an overwhelming number of wedding venues from which to pick. Perhaps Worcestershire holds special meaning for you, or perhaps you simple want somewhere surrounded by nature, a place of unrivalled charm, if so, there are few places better suited. The Malvern Hills area is quite simply, one of the most magical landscapes you will ever encounter.
A little on the Malvern Hills
The largest area of common land in Worcestershire (or the West Midlands in fact) is the range of ancient rocks that make up The Malvern Hills. Between the Severn Valley to the East and the rolling fields of Herefordshire to the West they rise up to their highest point at the Worcestershire Beacon looking out over one of Britain’s most beautiful vistas. On a clear day, with blue sky above, you can see far off the Welsh mountains, the Bristol channel and below the spires of Worcester, Gloucester and Hereford Cathedrals. The wiry windswept grasses of the ridge tops provide perfect walking ground and as the hills fall down into the valleys below you begin to find hawthorn, mountain ash and sycamore as well as ancient woodlands. No wonder then that the Malvern Hills were designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty by Natural England. Free for everyone to explore and enjoy, the hills are covered in roughly 100 miles of footpaths and bridleways and have been a much loved destination for countless decades. The area is dotted with ‘holy wells,’ the region’s natural springs, which have seen generations come to Worcestershire for the quality of the waters. In fact, in 2002 the Malvern Hills were named the most popular free tourist attraction in the West Midlands in a survey by the Countryside Agency.
Inspired by the Hills
Such natural beauty will inevitably inspire great artistic works, the Malvern Hills however have been the background and soul of a surprising amount of creativity. The great English composer Elgar hailed from Worcestershire and was a great lover of the landscape, as too were the composers Herbert Howells and Ivor Gurney. The poet W.H. Auden spent several years in the Malvern Hills and wrote many of his finest works in the setting. On more of a fantastical note the same landscape was a huge influence on J.R.R. Tolkien who was introduced to the area by C.S. Lewis. Tolkien compared parts of the Malvern Hills to the ‘White Mountains of Gondor’ of his most famous works. The hills contain a whole host of myths and legends as well as the setting for works by the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning and later, “Malvern Hills” by Kazuo Ishiguro.”
Choosing a wedding venue
Always one of the hardest choices in planning your big day. The perfect wedding venue has to many things, a stunning backdrop to your photographs, a romantic retreat for you and your partner, an elegant host to your party, a meaningful place for your ceremony. Quite a tall order all in all. Worcestershire has wedding venues a plenty, so that’s not the problem. It’s finding one to tick all the boxes that can prove the difficulty.
We went exploring for this mystical site. If you are getting married in Worcestershire, you will certainly want to be surrounded by the landscape this part of the world is so famous for, and there are many very beautiful venues throughout the county.
Sites like http://worcestershireweddingshop.co.uk/venues/ can be an enormous help during your search, giving you a great comprehensive list of Worcestershire wedding venues.
However we couldn’t believe our luck when we stumbled onto this dream of a manor. Often called ‘the most picturesque wedding venue in Worcestershire’ Birtsmorton Court near Malvern is one of those rare venues that has it all.
A moated grange, it is surrounded by the most unbelievable countryside, stately gardens, a view of the Malvern Hills. It can host civil ceremonies in its White Garden or Great Hall, but best of all, a short walk through the grounds leads to Birtsmorton’s very own church!
This place, both the venue and the surrounding area just call out, ‘English country wedding’. From the slopes of the Malvern Hills, looking out over the green fields, the rolling land and wooded valleys, it is hard to imagine anywhere more drenched in romance. If you are planning a Worcestershire wedding, then lucky you!
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