With the increasing popularity of Great Malvern as a spa town in the first half of the 19th Century, hotels and large houses were built to accomodate the visitors taking the water. In 1860 the Great Western Railway station was opened and the company built the grandest of these hotels, the Imperial. A tree lined road was built between the station and the town, and was named Avenue Road.
By 1865 farmland below the railway had been sold for the development of cheaper housing. A temporary church was erected next to Mill Lane School (now Malvern Parish School) in 1866, but it quickly became apparent that a permanent structure was needed. So, in 1873 Lady Foley, the lady of the manor, donated a piece of land on Avenue Road for the builing a new church which would chiefly serve the working classes – including many of those in service at the large houses and hotels in the area.
The church, designed by Barry & Sons of Liverpool to seat 700 people was built at a cost of around £9000. It was consecrated on the 28th December 1875 by the Bishop of Worcester. By the First World War the parish was one of the largest in Malvern with many imposing Victorian properties, as well as the shops and businesses at Barnards Green and many smaller houses. St Andrews, Poolbrook was a daughter church to Christ Church at the time.
Location
The Memorial
The memorial, which is located on the wall of the north aisle, was made by the Bromsgrove Guild in white marble with an alabaster surround; it was completed in December 1921.
