These notes and extracts ( in green), are taken from 'Charles Dickens at Malvern' by Eleni Odescalchi, Published by First Paige, Malvern 1992, with her kind permission. It is available in Malvern Library.

'....his wife Catherine (Kate) had been unwell since the birth of their daughter, Dora, in August 1850, their ninth child........Her prolonged illness caused Dickens much concern......he resolved to try what Malvern and Dr. Wilson could do for Kate.'

On March 9th 1851, in a letter to a friend, Dickens wrote:

'After taking the most sensible advice I could get, (including my own), I have resolved to carry her down to Malvern, & put her under a vigorous discipline of exercise, air & cold water. We go on Thursday morning- and come back for good I don't know when. But I shall be backwards and forwards once or twice a week.....

Dickens arranged for her to stay at a guest house called Knotsford Lodge, now part of The Abbey Hotel, and right next to Dr. Wilson's Hydropathic Establishment. There was Kate, her sister, a maid, some of the children and other servants staying there so they took over the whole first floor. It seems that Dickens went backwards and forwards between Malvern and his home in London throughout her stay in Malvern. This would have been by train to Worcester via Birmingham or train to Gloucester and then travel by some form of horse drawn vehicle. It is suggested that he might well have walked from Worcester, a journey of eight miles. However it was, it was complicated and expensive and he did the journey frequently.