Malvern water

This article is about natural Malvern spring water. For the bottled product, see Malvern Water (bottled water).

St. Ann's Well, Malvern, a popular café for walkers on the hills. The building on the right houses the spout from which the water surges into a basin.
The Holy Well, where the water was first bottled on a commercial scale. The well is believed to be the oldest bottling plant in the world, and now bottles under the name Holywell Spring Water

Malvern water is a natural spring water from the Malvern Hills on the border of the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire in England.[1] The Hills consist of very hard granite and limestone rock. Fissures in the rock retain rain water, which slowly permeates through, escaping at the springs. The springs release an average of about 60 litres a minute and the flow has never been known to cease.

Beneficial properties of the water have been reported for over 400 years,[2][3] and the reason for such benefits was a topic of scholarly discussion by 1817.[4] In the 19th century Malvern became famous for the water cure, resulting in its rapid development from a village to a busy town with many large Victorian and Edwardian hotels.[5][6] The writings of the hydrotherapists James Gully and James Wilson,[7] and well known patients who included Lord Lytton[8] contributed to Malvern's renown at that time. The water was bottled on an industrial scale under the Schweppes brand from 1850 until 2010, and has been bottled by a family-owned company since 2009 as Holywell Malvern Spring Water. In 2012 the Holywell Water Co Ltd was granted permission to use the world-famous "Malvern" name in its branding, thus becoming Holywell Malvern Spring Water. It has been drunk by several British monarchs.[9] Elizabeth I drank it in public in the 16th century; Queen Victoria refused to travel without it.[10]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference GeoHackMalvernWater was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ I. Bradley, Bottled Up, History Today, 61 (1) 6-7, 2011
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference McMenemy1953 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Chambers1817 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Metcalfe1877 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Metcalfe1898 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Gully&Wilson1843 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference LyttonWaterpatient was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hansard1983 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC_QEII was invoked but never defined (see the help page).