Holy Well water to go on sale again (From Malvern Gazette)

Holy Well water to go on sale again

10:48am Wednesday 18th July 2007 in News By Tarik Al Rasheed

WATER from Malvern's historic Holy Well is to go on sale for the first time in more than a decade.

The bottling plant, well chamber and information room at the famous spout are in line to be restored as part the Malvern Hills AONB and Malvern Spa Association's springs and wells refurbishment project.

The work is due to start in September and be complete by the end of the year, and owner Mike Humm then hopes to resume a once successful bottling operation.

The Holy Well was the site of the world's first water bottling business in the 1620s, and was home to Schweppes in the 1850s before it relocated to Colwall.

Although the well's location at the top of a narrow lane makes it difficult to transport the water away, Mr Humm hopes to produce around 1,200 bottles per day.

He plans to sell it both locally and nationally, under the provisional name of Water from the Holy Well'.

Mr Humm purchased the well and adjacent cottage in 1999 following the death of previous owner John Parkes, who restored the well and rebuilt the business in the second half of last century with wife Thelma, who still lives in Malvern.

"We had been here for about ten years and saw the cottage was up for sale," he said. "We didn't realise the well was part of the package, but we thought it was such a magic and beautiful place with so much history that we went for it."

Although the latest restorations are backed by external funding, Mr Humm has already invested thousands of pounds of his own money into the well.

"When we bought the place the well itself was pretty much in disrepair, so we fixed it up to keep the water flowing," he said. "It was always our intention to do this. It's a really special place with a massive history, and it's very important for the heritage that we bottle water up there."