Malvern Water (bottled water)

This article is about the commercialised product. For information on the water's impact on the town of Malvern, see Malvern water.
Malvern Water
Country England
Source Malvern Hills
Type natural spring water
All values in milligrams per liter (mg/l)

Malvern Water is a brand of bottled drinking water obtained from a spring in the range of Malvern Hills that marks the border between the counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire in England.[1] The water is a natural spring water from the hills that consist of very hard granite rock. Fissures in the rock retain rain water, which slowly permeates through, escaping at the springs.[2] The springs release an average of about 60 litres a minute. The flow depends on rainfall and can vary from as little as 36 litres (8 gallons) per minute to over 350 litres (77 gallons) per minute.[3][4]

Malvern Water is now exclusively bottled by the Holywell Water Company Ltd under the name Holywell Malvern Spring Water. The major bottling plant was located in Colwall and owned by the Coca-Cola Corporation and was marketed under the original brand of Schweppes who began bottling it on a commercial scale in 1850. Coca Cola Enterprises announced the closure of their plant on 20 October 2010, with the final production in November that year. From 2009 it has been exclusively bottled on a smaller scale by the family-owned Holywell Water Company with still and sparkling versions available.

History

An early 20th century Malvern Water (St. Ann's Well) bottle.

Malvern water has been bottled and distributed in the United Kingdom and abroad from the 16th century,[2] with water bottling at the Holy Well being recorded in 1622.[5] Various local grocers have bottled and distributed Malvern water during the 19th and early 20th centuries, but it was first bottled on a large commercial scale by Schweppes, who opened a bottling plant at Holywell in Malvern Wells in 1850. The water was first introduced by Schweppes as Malvern Soda, later renaming it Malvern Seltzer Water in 1856.[6][7] In 1890 Schweppes moved away from Holywell, entered into a contract with a Colwall family, and built a bottling plant in the village in 1892.[6][8] The Holywell was subsequently leased to John and Henry Cuff, who bottled there until the 1960s.[9][10][11] The Holywell became derelict until 2009 when with the aid of a Lottery Heritage grant, production of 1200 bottles per day of Holywell Malvern Spring Water was recommenced by an independent family-owned company.[9] The well is believed to be the oldest bottling plant in the world.[12]

In the 1850s Malvern Water was bottled by John and William Burrow at the Bottling Works Spring in Robson Ward's yard on Belle Vue Terrace in Great Malvern. Bottling ceased here in the 1950s and the former bottling works are now a selection of shops, coffee house and kitchen showroom. Water for the Bottling Works Spring is piped from St Ann's Well.[13]

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 word.

In 1927, Schweppes acquired from the Burrows family, Pewtress Spring in Colwall, on the western side of the Herefordshire Beacon, approximately two miles from Colwall village.[6][14] The source emerges at the fault line between the Silurian thrust and the Precambrian diorite and granite above it.[6] The spring was renamed Primeswell Spring, and in 1929 Schweppes commenced bottling.[8][14] The factory employed 25 people who bottled 26 million bottles annually.[15] It was operated by Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd., and the water was sold under the Schweppes brand name.[16]

On 20 October 2010 Coca Cola Enterprises, who currently own the Malvern brand, announced that production would be ceasing as of 3 November 2010. This is due to the declining market share Malvern has on the overall water market. On 28 October 2011 it was reported that the bottling plant is being sold to a property company.[17]

Purity

The natural untreated water is generally devoid of all minerals, bacteria, and suspended matter, approaching the purity of distilled water. In 1987 Malvern gained official EU status as a natural mineral water, a mark of purity and quality. However, in spite of regular quality analysis,[18] Malvern's reputation for purity suffered a blow when during 2006 the rock that filters the water dried out, allowing the water from heavy storms to flow through it too quickly for the natural filtering process to take place efficiently. Due to the slight impurities, the Coca-Cola Company, manufacturer of the Schweppes brand, had to install filtration equipment,[19] which reclassifies the water as spring water under European Union law.[20] Consequently,the labels were change from: Malvern The Original English Natural Mineral Water. Naturally filtered through Pre-Cambrian granite and sourced from deep beneath the Malvern Hills. to read The Original English Water Bottled in the Malvern Hills.[21]

In 1998, Coca-Cola Schweppes recalled stocks of carbonated Malvern Water due to traces of benzene found in the carbon dioxide delivered to the bottling plants from the Terra Nitrogen Company near Bristol, which distributes the gas to carbonated drinks manufacturers.[22]

Royalty

Malvern Water has been drunk by several British monarchs.[23] Queen Elizabeth I drank it in public in the 16th century; Queen Victoria refused to travel without it.

References

  1. ↑ 52°06′27″N 2°19′48″W / 52.10737°N 2.32994°W
  2. 1 2 Smart, Mike (2009), The Malvern Hills, London: Frances Lincoln Ltd, p. 17, ISBN 978-0-7112-2915-0, retrieved 12 July 2010
  3. ↑ Blyth, Francis George Henry (1967), A Geology for Engineers, Edward Arnold, p. 273, retrieved 23 June 2010 First snippet view second snippet view
  4. ↑ "Hydrology and Fluvial Geomorphology", Area Geology (Abberley and Malvern Hills Geopark), archived from the original on 2011-07-21, retrieved 12 July 2010
  5. ↑ Great Malvern Conservation Area: Appraisal and Management Strategy (PDF), Malvern Hills District Council: Planning Services, April 2008, p. 5, retrieved 12 July 2010
  6. 1 2 3 4 Official Malvern Water brochure. Coca-Cola Enterprises Limited. 2009.
  7. ↑ "Schweppe's Malvern Seltzer Water", Medical Times and Gazette Advertiser, Vol 12 - New series (301), 5 April 1856: 328, retrieved 14 July 2010
  8. 1 2 About Colwall (PDF), Herefordshire Council Parks, Countryside and Leisure Development Service (Funded by Malvern Hills AONB Partnership), 2008, retrieved 14 July 2010
  9. 1 2 "Holy Well". Malvern Spa Association. Retrieved 14 October 2009.
  10. ↑ McComb, Richard (24 July 2009), "Water, as nature intended", Birmingham Post (Trinity Mirror Midlands Ltd), retrieved 15 July 2010
  11. ↑ Richardson, Linsdall (1930), Wells and springs of Worcestershire, (Memoirs of the Geological Survey, England and Wales), London: HM Stationery Office, p. 119, retrieved 16 July 2010
  12. ↑ "Historic bottling plant at Holy Well open for business again", Malvern Gazette (Newsquest Media Group), 9 November 2009, retrieved 5 July 2010
  13. ↑ "Put a spring in your step", Malvern Gazette (Newsquest Media Group), 16 June 2003, retrieved 6 April 2012
  14. 1 2 Schweppes & Malvern Water, Malvern-Hills.Co, retrieved 14 July 2010
  15. ↑ Coca-Cola.co.uk Coca Cola Great Britain and Ireland receives Water Stewardship Award for Malvern Water Check |url= value (help), Coca-Cola Great Britain: Press Centre, 1 September 2008, retrieved 5 July 2010
  16. ↑ "CocaCola Scwheppes Water web page". Retrieved 14 July 2010.
  17. ↑ "Hopes for revival of Malvern Water dashed". Malvern Gazette (Newsquest Media Group). 28 October 2011. Retrieved 28 October 2011.
  18. ↑ Bacteriological sampling of Malvern spring water (PDF), Malvern Hills District Council, 2010, retrieved 3 July 2010 Source page
  19. ↑ James Connell (11 April 2007), "MALVERN: Why taste of the hills is no longer called mineral water", Worcester News, retrieved 3 July 2010
  20. ↑ Van Der Aa, Monique (2003). "Classification of mineral water types and comparison with drinking water standards". Environmental Geology 44: 554–563. doi:10.1007/s00254-003-0791-4.
  21. ↑ Poulter, Sean (9 April 2007), "Why Malvern can no longer call itself mineral water", Daily Mail, retrieved 13 July 2010
  22. ↑ Leading soft drinks withdrawn, BBC News, 1 June 1998, retrieved 14 July 2010
  23. ↑ Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) 37. House of Commons. 15 February 1983. col. 268–274.

Bibliography

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External links

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