About us
The Elmley Foundation was endowed by the late Countess Beauchamp of Madresfield Court near Malvern. She was the Danish-born widow of the eighth and last Earl Beauchamp who was known as Viscount Elmley until he succeeded his father to the House of Lords in 1938.
Elmley and Mona, as they were known to all their friends, lived happily at Madresfield for 45 years until he died in 1979, leaving her the majority of Madresfield’s contents. She died 10 years later and in the intervening period gave increasing thought to the best way of providing public access to the house and its contents, and how its traditions as a patron of the arts could be revived. The Elmley Foundation is one of the results. Its objects are to encourage all forms of arts, crafts and design in the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire, upon which the occupants of Madresfield have had a large influence over many generations.