St Ann’s well renovated
Clock Tower before restoration
Out on the Cowleigh Road, this is another popular water collection point despite the hazards of a busy road. Just 30 metres beyond the spout is a car park with a woodland path to the spout, yet time spent chatting to contractors at the site has revealed a reluctance of water collectors to use it.
This spout was not in the original plan because no one seemed to own it, then Worcestershire County Council stepped in to ‘own it for the project’. With cash savings elsewhere on the project, new life could be breathed into the spout. This ornate spout constructed of terracotta and green glazed bricks has a good flow of water through it. In fact it is rumoured that the nozzle had been tampered with and had come off once, and such was the pressure that passing cars were being washed! When tamed, the water continues through a number of properties down to the moat at Madresfield Court.
The bricks had succumbed to frost damage over the years so were in need of replacement. The terracotta ones came easily but the green glazed bricks, once made by Royal Doulton, seem beyond the skills of modern brick makers. So once again the term ‘honest repair’ has been used to justify the new bricks, whose newness will be revealed by their older neighbours.
Even during the lifetime of the project the water nozzle had been bent, no doubt to make it the easier for some big bottled collectors. Fearful of flooding the road again with an unstoppable flow, an ornate and antique cover has been made to thwart the nozzle benders.
It was from one of the unused tanks at the Westminster Bank that the supply to the West Malvern Tap was taken. This long dry supply eventually began to flow again on the 8/8/08. 20 minutes seems a long time for the water to get from Westminster Bank to the tap, but that’s how long it took initially. The water now flows in a blue plastic pipe that runs down the track, and then through the old tank system behind the wall and into the tap. One of the big cost savings on the project was the laying of this pipe. Thoughts of burying a pipe on the side of the Malvern Hills turn to stone and heavy diggers. A few trial holes showed that this might not be the case so we took a risk and employed a lightweight mechanical mole. This device driven by compressed air, burrows through the soil without much surface disturbance and it worked! Our thanks go out to Ron Mason, the owner of the Tap for all his help in the restoration work.
With the money saved by the West Malvern mole, we were able to restore other equally deserving but initially neglected spouts. One such lay just below The West Malvern Tap in St James’s churchyard. Best described as a grotto; the rodents whose watery grave it was, might have thought otherwise. Despite the promise of visible pipes, the site was dowsed and no incoming supply was discovered. So the old grating suspended just above the water has been replaced by a finer one, the remnant from an ancient church heating system. The stone work repointed, and a low maintenance planting scheme now grows in the bank above the grotto. All this was done under the helpful, watchful eye of the Churchwarden, David Matthews.
Further south along the West Malvern Road, the traveller will come to one of the most popular spouts for collecting water. Many will remember the queues of heavy drinkers there, straining to carry their water bottles back to their cars. Not sure if this fraction really works, but those queues may have been halved since the arrival of the bifurcating spout. Where once there was one pipe where one bottle could be filled, there’s two. Now people actually talk to each other as they fill up, rather than queue in British silence.
Andrew Findlay of Eastnor Forge made the bifurcating spout out of solid copper to a design by Rose Garrard. The clever bit about it is on the inside. The turbulence meant that the flow from each of the bifurcating arms was uneven. Within the copper body lies an adjustable choke that so far seems to favour neither side in the race to top up the bottles. Under one’s feet, is found the only other visible change to the site. Replacing the grass and gravel path there is now a brick sett path.
Heading yet further south along the West Malvern Road, you come upon the Royal Well, by the road side, and under private ownership. Starting from the top: a new coat of arms was found and coloured by Rose Garrard. Those with an eye for heraldry will notice that it is not quite contemporary with the spout, but such is the whim of auctions. All the stone dedication plaques have been recut, and a swan neck pipe fixed onto the old pipe to help collect water. The grate upon which the collectors stand their bottle is of the same church batch that is in St James’s Spout.
Travel along Jubilee Drive and you come to British Camp: there you will find Wynds Point Fountain. Long since dry, this belongs to the Cadbury family who own the house. Its old water supply no longer existed and in a moment of dream thinking from the ladies on the project, the Cadbury connection could have been exploited to make a chocolate fountain! In the end only the structure was shored up. The stone work had been connected to the railings and as trees had fallen and buckled these, the block work had shattered. So here all that needed to be done was repair the railings and square up the stone work again.
Heading north along the Wells Road, Jubilee Fountain stands at the junction of Green Lane. Neglected and dry for so long because ownership was unclear, this spout now flows with spring water. It was discovered that the monument belonged to the Parochial Church Council and they were prepared to lease it to the Parish Council, who now have tenure of it. Our thanks go to all those in both organisations who helped untangle this legal web.
Thanks also go to Severn Trent who freely connected the spout into the spring water collector main that runs the length of the road from the Clock Tower in North Malvern to the reservoir at British Camp.
Those with an eye for fine brassware will note the percussion tap that waits to be pressed to get water out. This is contemporary with the fountain and was bought, after several upsets from ebay. Our ingenious blacksmith, Andrew Findlay was able to forge a fitting that hopefully will mean that the tap and fountain will never part company.
The remaining works included recutting the stonework, repairing the knee high railings and replanting around the base of the monument. The shrub at the back has been deliberately pruned to mimic the image in the earliest photograph we have of the site. To some eyes it appears Japanese in trimming and this coincides with the fashion for things oriental, when the photograph was taken.
Almost directly above Jubilee Fountain, on Holywell Road, sits Holywell itself. Undoubtedly one of the most ancient sites in the area, Holywell building has had its ups and downs. Always a collection point for water, and often a bottling plant, this dual purpose is being revived by the project owner of the site, Mike Humm.
Since the construction of the building in the 1840s the well room and restroom on the south side of the building have been open to the public. Over the years, damp, time and vandals had made their mark. Here all the stone work in the niche of the spout had been worn away and the trough into which the water fell had cracked. Being a listed building meant that replacement of these was not always smiled upon, so ‘honest repair’ was the order of the day. This means that what’s been repaired can be clearly seen, rather than disguised as original. So although the plan is to replace the marble in the niche and the 1970s tile work, the trough will be lined with glass.
Not wishing to make the rest room too comfortable, it will have a pew as befits a ‘holy’ place, where resters will be able to contemplate an information panel about the long history of this site.
In the rooms to the north of the well room, the project is in the throes of creating a small education room. Here there will be displays of rocks and bottles, one being the origins of Malvern Water, the other being the carrier of its fame to distant parts. Information panels will tell the story of the water cure and its importance to Malvern. But in the room behind this is where the real business will be taking place.
The owner has decided to revive the bottling of water here, in the place where it was originally bottled. The operation will be only small scale and visitors will be able to see the goings on through a window in the education room.
Tucked away in a place that no one ventures is Ellerslie Spout. Like St James’s this deserves the name ‘grotto’, as it sits by the main Wells Road just below the Wyche Road. Overgrown by trees and shrubs, the first job was to just clear the site to assess what might have been. What was revealed was a crumbling rough stone wall with carved tablets set into it. There were signs of where water once might have flowed, but no more. So the wall was shored up and the tablets replaced. The originals are now with Malvern Museum.
It is sad that this spout, like so many others find themselves isolated by busy roads. Maybe this is inevitable because they refreshed parched travellers or was it that the roads led to the spouts? Whichever came first, spout or road, wiser heads can discern, but how about a Malvern phrase to usurp the ‘chicken or egg’ conundrum, replaced with ‘spout or track’?
Someway distant from the hills and even from its name, on the Guarlford Common, lies the Barnards Green Fountain. Originally dedicated to the horses of the Boer War it stood on Barnards Green roundabout. Moved for road improvements, it is now far from its water source and had suffered the depravations of time. The lettering of the dedication plaque was indecipherable and the structure of the basin was cracked. With both these remedied, it stands to remind passers-by of the nation’s debt to the kingdom of animals.
Down on Spring Lane in Malvern Link lies a spout with a distinguished name in a less than distinguished spot. Belonging to the Madresfield Estate, it has been tucked away off the road, beneath a damson tree for decades. The first job here was to attract the eye to it. Rose Garrard came up with a landscaping scheme that included brick pillars and a wending stone path. The path takes you to a white glazed brick trough. These bricks had been frost damaged and so were replaced with specially made ones. In the centre of the trough, was a lion’s head with a little mossy beard, through which the water comes. It seems in keeping with today’s passion for warnings for fools, that you should never drink from a lion’s mouth; doubly true in this case as the water is unusually polluted. We know this because the water is tested by the District Council’s Environmental Health Department who publish the results on their website for all to see.