HANLEY MATTERS No

Issue HANLEY MATTERS No. 24 the newsletter of The Hanleys’ Village Society Winter 2011 OFFICERS HOLYWELL SPRING WATER President Nick Lechmere Tel: 07771 644927 Thanks to the hard and ancient rocks of the Malvern Hills, "Malvern water Chairman is famous for containing just nothing at all...!" So said Dr John Wall in Jenny McGowran Tel: 311820 1747 after finding that it contained very few minerals. And the oldest of the spring waters to be exploited is Holy Well, dating back to 1558 when Treasurer John Boardman John Hornyold of Blackmore Park bought the lordship of the manor of Tel: 311748 Hanley Castle from the crown and with it the rights to the spring. A Secretary & Newsletter condition was that he allowed pilgrims to stop and refresh themselves at Editor Malcolm Fare the well on their way to Wales. Even today, there are two rooms at the Tel: 311197 well, one for rest and the other for refreshment as people come to drink Programme Secretary the water. David Thomas Tel: 310437 The present owner, Mike Humm, gave members an amusing account of his battles with planners, builders and environment authorities as he FORTHCOMING and his wife Marian bought the well in 1999 and then decided to restore ACTIVITIES it. They found the remains of a bottling plant with thousands of 2-litre 25 March 2011 plastic bottles dating from 1977, when John and Thelma Parkes briefly Talk by Brian Jauncey reopened the well after their own 7-year restoration programme, having on the history of bought the business from Cuff & Co. Madresfield Court. Village Hall, 7.30 pm. Holy Well water has a long and interesting history. As far back as the 12th century, St Oswald is said to have revealed the medicinal powers of 28 April 2011 Tour of Madresfield the Well to a hermit on the hills and there are stories of monks wrapping Court by Brian cloths steeped in this water around ill patients. According to a poem Jauncey. Tickets £10 written around 1590, although not published until 1622, water from the from David Thomas. Madresfield Court car Well was bottled at the rate of a thousand bottles a week, making it the park, 10.30 am. source of the UK's first bottled water. In his diary, John Evelyn records making a detour to the Well in 1654. Holy Well Mineral Water Factory in 1904 During the 18th century the been created in front of the WORKING BOATS purity of the water made Holy bottling room. Well Malvern's most popular Following the closure of In his talk on the British destination for people seeking Coca Cola's Colwall plant, Waterways heritage working a cure for various ailments. In demand for Holywell spring boats project, narrow boat 1843 the Hornyold family water has increased skipper Vince Williams erected a well house based on dramatically. It is classified as explained that for 150 years a building in Baden-Baden spring water because it is these boats used to carry and leased extraction to bottled at source from a goods along Britain’s 2000 Schweppes, who opened the recognised underground spring. miles of canals. first commercial bottling plant In addition to a 75 cl table But most have rotted away in 1850. The water was bottle, Mike and his son Rhys and in 1999 British Waterways introduced at the Great have introduced a 330 ml bottle secured a Heritage Lottery Exhibition of 1851 as Malvern and aim to increase output to Grant of £211,000 to rescue Soda, renamed Malvern the maximum of 1200 bottles a some of the craft that were Seltzer Water in 1856. In 1890 day, still and sparkling. left. Over the years, a dozen Schweppes moved to Colwall Recently, a local resident volunteers have worked on and Holy Well was leased to wrote to Buckingham Palace seven boats, most built in the John and Henry Cuff, who suggesting that the Queen 1930s, a canal tug built in bought the site from the might like to switch to Holywell 1912, a more modern ice- Hornyold family at the break- water now that the supply of breaker tug and a piling rig. up of the estate in 1919; their her favourite Malvern water Typically, heavy cargo was company continued bottling had dried up, so to speak. carried by pairs of boats: a water until the 1960s. Mike Humm provided a quote, motor boat with a capacity of Mike Humm brought the but lost the contract because 25 tons towing a butty boat story up to date with a his water was too expensive. carrying 30 tons. Restoration touching story about bats. Good to know that Her sometimes requires stripping a Soon after starting restoration Majesty is conscious of the boat down to the bare frame work, the builders walked out need to make economies in and using skilled repairers to because they found bats, these hard times. rebuild, so that the work can more specifically two lesser take 2 years and cost £32,000. horseshoe bats, a protected AGM & POSTAL In a fascinating look at a species. English Nature issue BALLOT way of life now past, Vince licences to allow building work Williams explained how to continue provided the bat At the AGM it was announced families lived on a 71’ 6” long habitat is protected, but that a postal ballot of members x 7’ wide narrow boat. The refused in this case because to decide whether or not to cabin was 8’ 6” long x 6’ 4” they were being sued by bat adopt a new constitution wide, just big enough to take a activists. So Mike made his adding a ‘civic’ element to the double mattress 6’ 4” long x 2’ own arrangements and called Society’s activities had 6” wide - cozy. A 6’ long single in a bat man to design a resulted in a vote of more than bed would, if necessary, sleep luxury apartment for the two to one against. However, two children head to toe, and creatures along the back wall because it would help the a drawer was used as a cot of the well house. However, Society’s chances of being for the baby. A small oven was because the bats enter the accepted as a charity, the designed to take a chicken or building from the front, a meeting voted in favour of a duck and a cupboard acted tunnel had to be built through adopting a simplified as a pantry, the door dropping the bottling room, with the constitution that omitted the down to form a table. image of a bat at the entrance, controversial additional clause. Two well-known terms so that they could fly Jenny McGowran was come directly from canal life: unimpeded to their roost. elected as chairman to replace ‘legging it’ from the practice of Heritage Lottery funding Ian Bowles. Other committee children steering a boat along has seen the well chamber changes were Graham a tunnel with their legs and and rest room refurbished by Thomas to stand down and ‘toe-rag’ from the rags the Malvern Spa Association, Andrew Milne and Tony wrapped around their toes to and a new Visitors Centre has Parsons to join. protect their feet..

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