Little Malvern No. 1 / Lesser Malvern / Malvern Minor / Milberne Parva / Parva Malvern

We found no separate entry for Little Malvern in the Domesday survey. A font here is described and illustrated in Neale (1825): "The font, which is of stone, and of an octagonal form, stands among the pews on the north side of the nave" [NB: the engraving by H. le Keux, on a drawing by Neale himslef, shows the nave looking east, and an octagonal shape decorated on the sides with mouldings and other motifs can be discerned among the pews, but it is not fully visible; there is a cover on it, one with thin scroll ribs on it in the manner of Jacobean font covers]. Described in Andrew (1912): "the font is clearly the inverted octagonal capital of some pillar, the under side of which has been hollowed out for the water, while it rests on a plain masonry octagonal shaft as wide as the former top of the capital". Miller (1890) writes of the old church being in ruins, "the old monastic church was put into repair, 1864, and is used as the church"; he does mention a font in it. The Victoria County History (Worcester, vol. 2, 1971) notes: "The Annales record that the priory of St. Giles of Little Malvern was founded in 1171 [...] In a ledger of the priory of Worcester exists a deed whereby Simon, bishop of Worcester, decreed that Little Malvern and the church of St. Giles should be eternally united in frankalmoign with the church of Worcester". The VCH (Worcester, vol. 3, 1913) adds: "The parish of Little Malvern had apparently no church apart from the conventual church. [...] The earliest portions of the building now standing appear to be the two late 12th-century cloister doors, one opening into the south transept and the other into the nave, and the contemporary eastern respond of the nave arcade on the north. [...] The church of Little Malvern was apparently rebuilt in the episcopacy of Bishop Giffard, for he visited the priory and dedicated the church there in 1282. [...] The remaining portions of the structure appear to have been reconstructed on older lines by Bishop Alcock late in the 15th century." There is no mention of a font in either of the two volumes of the VCH. Brooks & Pevsner (2007): "apparently the reused base and stump of an octagonal Perp[endicular] pier." [cf. Index entry for Little Malvern No. 2 for a second object listed for this church]