The Malvern Hills and surrounding commons and farm land are designated as an Area of Natural Outstanding Beauty (AONB) and a European Geo Park, The Hills, protected by Acts of Parliament, are administered and maintained by the Malvern Hills Conservators.
The primary purpose of AONB designation is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the area.
There is currently a Malverns Heritage Project that focuses on two distinctive elements of Malverns' heritage: its ancient grazed hills and the water that flows from them. The project is largely funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, with cash contributions from the Countryside Agency, English Nature, the Malvern Hills Conservators and Worcestershire County Council. The project has been successful in bringing national funds of just under £800,000 to bear
on local priorities.
The first element aimed to help restore the grazing that gave the hills and
commons south of British Camp their distinctive appearance. As part of the Castlemorton Plan, the flora of the area has been surveyed
Malvern's water is world famous and flows freely from a number of spouts and springs around the hills. The Malverns Heritage Project aims to restore fourteen of these distinctive features and to promote the history of the water culture.
The ecology of the Malverns is complex and varied. The most prominent feature is the north-south spine of the main hills that are covered in acid grasslands, bracken and western gorse on the open hills. This open country merges through deciduous scrub into woodland on the lower slopes. These trees soften the link between the open hills, the urban areas and the more intensively farmed landscape at the foot of the hills.
The lower hills of the southern end of the spine are more wooded and include a large area of woodland held by the Malvern Conservators at Hollybush Roughs, notable for its oaks, hazel coppice and large holly trees.
On the eastern side of the main hills lie three distinct forms of common land. There are the grasslands of the urban commons and wide road verges of Malvern, which are really amenity grasslands. The commons at Castlemorton and Hollybed are mainly rough grasslands, with some scrub areas, where sheep and cattle graze. The Old Hills, the parts of the Conservators' land most distant from the Malvern Hills, there are vigorous grasslands on the more productive soils, with some scrub and woodland.
The diversity of the flora of the Malverns owes much to the elevation, the different climatic conditions and the variety of the habitats, so that "plants of the mountains, the plains, the marsh, the pasture and the woodland, all find congenial homes. In the 1930s it was said that "No fewer than" 800 species of flowering plants, irrespective of doubtful or critical forms, may be found in the district."
In Spring the meadows and woods are bright with daffodils and primroses. Violets, too, abound and at sometime in the past "the air of the lanes is scented by them". In many spots primroses are followed by a carpet of bluebells. In June many parts of the hills are covered with the white bedstraw. Later in the year the hills bear quantities of harebells. Wild roses grow in great profusion and variety with up to nearly twenty species, including some of great rarity.
The autumn crocus, or meadow saffron, abounds on both sides of the hills, especially the western, and covers the fields for miles along parts of the Severn. The orchis family is largely represented around the town of Great Malvern, and the foxglove is " a very characteristic and beautiful Malvern flower," spreading over the hills in June and July. From its special floral wealth, one of the buttresses of the Herefordshire Beacon is known as Strawberry Hill.
The common yellow flag grows abundantly in many marshy places, and there are flat meadows that in spring are bright with the marsh marigold. On the eastern side of the hills the dwarf broom can be found and other plants that became established in the Forest. The district is rich in lichens and fungoids, but poor in ferns.
The primary purpose of AONB designation is to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the area.
There is currently a Malverns Heritage Project that focuses on two distinctive elements of Malverns' heritage: its ancient grazed hills and the water that flows from them. The project is largely funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, with cash contributions from the Countryside Agency, English Nature, the Malvern Hills Conservators and Worcestershire County Council. The project has been successful in bringing national funds of just under £800,000 to bear
on local priorities.
The first element aimed to help restore the grazing that gave the hills and
commons south of British Camp their distinctive appearance. As part of the Castlemorton Plan, the flora of the area has been surveyed
Malvern's water is world famous and flows freely from a number of spouts and springs around the hills. The Malverns Heritage Project aims to restore fourteen of these distinctive features and to promote the history of the water culture.
The ecology of the Malverns is complex and varied. The most prominent feature is the north-south spine of the main hills that are covered in acid grasslands, bracken and western gorse on the open hills. This open country merges through deciduous scrub into woodland on the lower slopes. These trees soften the link between the open hills, the urban areas and the more intensively farmed landscape at the foot of the hills.
The lower hills of the southern end of the spine are more wooded and include a large area of woodland held by the Malvern Conservators at Hollybush Roughs, notable for its oaks, hazel coppice and large holly trees.
On the eastern side of the main hills lie three distinct forms of common land. There are the grasslands of the urban commons and wide road verges of Malvern, which are really amenity grasslands. The commons at Castlemorton and Hollybed are mainly rough grasslands, with some scrub areas, where sheep and cattle graze. The Old Hills, the parts of the Conservators' land most distant from the Malvern Hills, there are vigorous grasslands on the more productive soils, with some scrub and woodland.
The diversity of the flora of the Malverns owes much to the elevation, the different climatic conditions and the variety of the habitats, so that "plants of the mountains, the plains, the marsh, the pasture and the woodland, all find congenial homes. In the 1930s it was said that "No fewer than" 800 species of flowering plants, irrespective of doubtful or critical forms, may be found in the district."
In Spring the meadows and woods are bright with daffodils and primroses. Violets, too, abound and at sometime in the past "the air of the lanes is scented by them". In many spots primroses are followed by a carpet of bluebells. In June many parts of the hills are covered with the white bedstraw. Later in the year the hills bear quantities of harebells. Wild roses grow in great profusion and variety with up to nearly twenty species, including some of great rarity.
The autumn crocus, or meadow saffron, abounds on both sides of the hills, especially the western, and covers the fields for miles along parts of the Severn. The orchis family is largely represented around the town of Great Malvern, and the foxglove is " a very characteristic and beautiful Malvern flower," spreading over the hills in June and July. From its special floral wealth, one of the buttresses of the Herefordshire Beacon is known as Strawberry Hill.
The common yellow flag grows abundantly in many marshy places, and there are flat meadows that in spring are bright with the marsh marigold. On the eastern side of the hills the dwarf broom can be found and other plants that became established in the Forest. The district is rich in lichens and fungoids, but poor in ferns.
