The county stretches from the dramatic Malvern Hills on the eastern borders to the fringes of the Cotswolds on the west. The rural areas are rich in sturdy cruck-framed timber buiildings, discussed in an expert introduction, and in village churches which can boast fine sculpture and fittings. The priory of Great Malvern retains exceptional medieval stained glass, and the medieval cathedral at Worcester has the tomb of King John and the chantry chapel of Prince Arthur, Henry VIII's elder brother. The City of Worcester has numerous fine buildings of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, while Great Malvern is of special interest as an early nineteenth-century spa town. The supreme example of Victorian grandeur is the eccentrically ambitious grounds and house of Witley Court, now an evocative ruin.
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner (January 30, 1902 - August 18, 1983) was one of the twentieth century's most learned and stimulating writers on art and architecture.
He established his reputation with Pioneers of Modern Design, though he is probably best known for his celebrated series of guides, The Buildings of England, acknowledged as one of the great achievements of twentieth-century scholarship. He was also founding editor of The Pelican History of Art, the most comprehensive and scholarly history of art ever published in English.