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Prehistoric and Roman Malvern

Hut platforms on British Camp
British Camp ramparts

The prehistoric heritage of Malvern is dominated by the two Iron-Age hill forts at the southern end of the Malvern Hills. The museum has a display board about British Camp (Herefordshire Beacon) and Midsummer Hill. A second board features Iron-Age round-houses and currency bars.  Locally there have been a number of Bronze-Age finds, particularly in the Victorian period, with barrows on the hills.  The Malvern area is also dotted with Romano-British kiln sites, particularly in Malvern Link and Hanley Castle, indicating a thriving industry in pottery and tile making.   Archaeologists in the 1990s discovered a kiln built on an industrial scale at the local Chase School.

The Prehistoric and Roman Collection

Much of the Prehistoric collection formerly displayed at Malvern Library (pre 1960s) including Bronze-Age artefacts, was transferred to the Worcestershire museum service at Hartlebury.  Malvern Museum still displays a number of items loaned by the county museum service, although the three Iron-Age currency bars have recently been returned.

The museum has a very small collection of items from Prehistoric and Roman periods:

Flint tools. A Neolithic scraper and a Bronze-Age arrow head.

Flint tools

There is a collection of about a dozen small flint tools and flint flakes from tool making.  These include a small Mesolothic flint core, a Neolithic scraper and a Bronze-Age arrow head

Bronze Age

The museum displays a plaster replica of a bronze axe-head (‘palstave’) found locally. Alongside is a bronze replica looped palstave axe head that has been acquired recently. There is also an early 20th century glass slide that shows the original palstave from Malvern Link.

Iron Age

Quern stone found at British Camp

The fragment of a large quern stone found at British Camp is undated, but is probably from the Iron Age.  The museum also has a display on Iron-Age currency bars.

Roman period

The museum displays pottery from the Roman kiln site at Great Buckman’s farm in Malvern Link (loan).  It also has a number of small base metal coins (just one found locally), as well as larger replica coins.