ONE of the most famous features of Malvern opens its doors for a open day next month (see page 6).

Gazette reporter Phill Tromans, a Malvernian himself, was given a guided tour and was amazed by what he found.

Apart from an 18-month period under Henry VIII, there has always been worship at Malvern Priory.

Today, it has around 500 Church of England members,

among them David George, the Custos Head Verger, who is leaving the church next month to train as an Anglican priest.

"It's a wonderful place and a lovely job. I've worked here for five years and lived in the grounds for four and a half," he said.

"The variety is fantastic, every day is different. We're not just a parish church, we're part of the attraction of the Malverns Experience," said Mr George, who gave me a guided tour.

Built under the reign of William the Conqueror in 1085, the original Norman church was considerably smaller than it is today.

It was constructed to bring the king's style of faith, the Benedictine order, to the British masses and was a daughter church to Westminster Abbey.

At that time Malvern was a small village in what is now Barnard's Green, and the land surrounding the priory, The King's Chase, would have been forested and used for the king to hunt in.

The main pillars in the priory are the original supporting columns for the Norman church, and are built from green Cradley stone. Above the pillars is a layer of Malvern stone and where this stops is the top of the original building, where an arched oak ceiling would have begun.

The church at this time used castle-like windows that let in very little light - the light would have been provided by candles, which would create a very musty and smoky atmosphere inside the building.

The period around 1460 was a time of architectural enlightenment, and saw the expansion of the Priory to the structure it is today.

The size of the church increased dramatically, the tower was added, and stained glass windows were introduced, bathing the church in light for the first time. Examples of the stained glass remain today, alongside Victorian painted glass added hundreds of years later. Both the Great East and West windows contain original samples of bible scenes, allowing the common people of the time to understand services that were conducted in Latin.

"It's sort of an early comic, teaching glass," said Mr George.

During the Second World War, the church organist Dr Hamand removed all of the glass from the windows and meticulously replaced it after the war.

Towards the east of the church is a rounded wall marking the boundary of the Norman church. On it are hundreds of original tiles from the 1460 expansion, crafted on site by practitioners of the Malvern School of Tilemaking, a method used throughout the country. Some of the tiles are worn, eroded by centuries of tramping feet.

The trip up to the tower is a long one, beginning with a Victorian wooden staircase and graduating to the original 15th century stone spiral stairs. All the way up the tower is centuries of graffiti from visitors. I noted dates as far back as 1787.

In the bell room are the nine bells, the oldest of which was cast around 1340 in Gloucester, and is one of the oldest bells in the country.

From the roof, a beautiful view of Malvern emerges with a bird's eye view of the roof of Malvern Theatres, complete with a mass of air-conditioning machinery.