Clinging to the Herefordshire side of the Northern Malvern Hills, West Malvern is a village of contrasts. Originally housing many of the people who worked in the quarries and lime kilns of the area, the working class roots are clear to see in many of the old cottages today. However, when the wealthy Victorian gentry arrived to settle in Malvern with the water cure, they saw the beauty of this Western position and built elegant houses which sit happily alongside the quarriers cottages. This mix of people from a wide variety of backgrounds continues today.
The village is strung along the West Malvern Road which winds along the side of the hills and, unlike the other Malverns, residents enjoy wonderful sunsets. The village residents maintain a sense of community, enhanced by occasions when the village gets cut off from the rest of the world in snowy conditions. Even the weather is often quite different in West Malvern to the other Malverns, being higher and West facing it is not uncommon for West Malvern residents to struggle out through deep snow to find that Great Malvern has no snow at all.
The centre of the village is dominated by a beautiful large building, until recently St James Girls School. When the school merged with Malvern Girls College and moved to Great Malvern the building and land was sold to Elim Pentecostal Church who now use it as a theological college and the centre of their worldwide organisation.
The pub on the Southern end of West Malvern, The Brewers, is popular and quite central to much of village life. It was famously rebuilt after a fire using money from concerts donated by Nigel Kennedy. Nigel grew up in West Malvern and was keen to see the Brewers back on its feet.