The Elgar Birthplace Museum

Sir Edward Elgar only lived at his birthplace when he was far too small to remember it. He was born in the cottage at Broadheath, outside Worcester, on June 2nd, 1857. Two years later the family moved back to Worcester, where Elgar's father had a music shop, and it was there that the composer would spend his youth – mostly above the shop itself.

Curiously, however, the Birthplace Museum brings you very close to Elgar. Somehow the grim red-brick house, which looks about as romantic and high-souled as a bachelor had- dock, has captured the magic. This is partly a matter of the glorious music which swells and thunders through the rooms. Partly it is the assortment of objects gathered there by the great man's loving daughter in his honour. And partly perhaps it is something irrational, the overwhelming force of the composer's own passionate lifelong interest in the place.