12/01/2026
CS Lewis, author of the Chronicles of Narnia book series as well as many other works, was a lover of the town of Malvern. He went to prep school there then returned to attend Malvern College for around a year.
Like his good friend JRR Tolkien, Lewis suffered respiratory problems during his childhood and his parents thought the fresh air and "health resort" reputation of the town would do him good. The two men also fought in France during the First World War, and thought deeply about religion and spirituality.
While Tolkien was inspired by the Malvern hills themselves, CS Lewis got a spark of inspiration from something in the town - the famous gas lamps. There are just over 100 working lamps within the Malvern district, down from a peak in 1905 of 1250, and incredibly they are all still running on gas power.
While walking back from the Unicorn pub one snowy evening, Tolkien and Malvern College professor George Sayer called out to Lewis to hurry up as he was dawdling some way behind them, but in that moment he had formed the beginning of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in his mind, bathed in the soft glow of gaslight.
The lamps are now protected and maintained by the Transition Gasketeers, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that Malvern would simply not be the same without them.
