Church of the Ascension Including Church Hall to East is a Grade II listed building in the Malvern Hills local planning authority area, England. First listed on 20 June 1991. Church.
Church of the Ascension Including Church Hall to East
- WRENN ID
- ragged-ashlar-lark
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Malvern Hills
- Constituency
- West Worcestershire MP: Dame Harriett Baldwin (Con)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 20 June 1991
- Type
- Church
- Address
- Church of the Ascension Including Church Hall to East, Somers Park Avenue
- OS grid reference
- SO 774 477
- Coordinates
- 52.12779, -2.33101
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of the Ascension, built in 1903 by Walter Tapper, is a parish church located on Somers Park Avenue, Malvern. Constructed of rendered brick with Guiting stone ashlar dressings, the church has a collyweston stone tile roof, with the chancel reclad in the late 19th century and the west tower containing an organ chamber in its first stage. A detached church hall is situated at the east end of the chancel. The church is designed in a Free Early English lancet style.
The church features a tall, four-bay nave with pairs of lancet windows set high in the north and south walls, framed by flat buttresses and a prominent moulded plinth. The south doorway has two orders, topped with brattishing. The plinth continues around the chancel, where the ground level is lower, creating the impression that the three-bay chancel is taller. The chancel has single lancet windows on its north and south walls, a triple lancet east window, and a stone bellcote at the junction with the nave. A small ashlar west tower, cross-gabled, has two-light north and south bell openings. Below the west gable is a stone relief depicting the Ascension, carved by Harry Hems of Exeter, accompanied by a carved inscription and a triple lancet window beneath. A small stair turret is located in the northwest angle of the nave and tower. The church is topped with a wrought-iron weather vane, a cross over the east gable, and a stone chimney on the north side of the chancel. The church hall, linked to the chancel by a porch, contains two pairs of three-light cross-mullion windows with transoms, spanning two bays.
Inside, the walls are plastered with stone dressings. The nave vault has transverse ribs on tall shafts. A triforium extends across the four bays of the nave, with arcades. A tripartite arcade provides access to the organ loft above the tower arch. The triforium continues around the chancel, which is rib-vaulted and features detached shafts supporting the tripartite east window, a three-bay sedilia, and a tall chancel arch. The furnishings include a wrought-iron screen, a font cover, and altar ornaments created by George Bainbridge Reynolds. A rood, originally from Oberammergau, is also present, along with a painted reredos, a panelled polygonal pulpit with a canopy, a Purbeck marble font with clusters of detached shafts, and choir stalls with poppy-head ends and traceried fronts. A carving of St Michael is positioned over the tower arch, likely by Hems.
The church was gifted by Louisa Vavasour Livingstone in memory of her husband, Arthur Guinness Livingstone.
Local climate
Church of the Ascension Including Church Hall to East receives an average of 740 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 74% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 66% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 38 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 71% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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