Vimto was bottled in Malvern Hills using spring water

Well, until recently, neither did we at the Malvern Spa Association (MSA)!

A few weeks ago we asked readers to send in their memories of Malvern water and the springs and photos of water memorabilia.

We had some great responses, thank you (and it’s not too late — see contact information below).

Interestingly, many were from people who had recently moved to the area and wanted to find out more about the water’s natural and cultural history and its present-day uses.

Quite a few had discovered springs and dilapidated wells in their new homes and gardens and wondered if they could use them for drinking water (the subject of another article).

One in particular piqued my interest — an old colour photo of a row of Vimto bottles lined up on a shelf.

On the labels are the words ‘Bottled by The Holy Well Spring (Malvern) Ltd’.

This was news to me and my MSA colleagues so I decided to investigate.

My first port of call was the website of the person who photographed the bottles, Howard Somerville.

In 2013 he had posted the image online with a note saying that “the samples were bought from the Ina Taylor village post office in Malvern Wells and photographed in 1963 but consumed (alas) by the author over 50 years ago”.

Howard also explains that at the time the Holy Well spring water bottling plant was run by Cuff’s Lemonade and adds: “Bottling was something of a cottage industry here, judging by the varying bottle sizes and fill levels.”

This much we did know — Cuff’s had bottled water at the Holy Well for many years and continued to do so until the 1970s.

In the early and mid-1900s, sparkling, or ‘carbonated’ Malvern water, was very popular, mainly thanks to Schweppes.

However, over time demand for sweet, flavoured fizzy drinks grew so fruit syrups were put into bottles which were topped up with sparkling water.

As Vimto was a Manchester-based company, presumably the syrup was distributed to local producers for bottling at source, including Cuff’s in Malvern.

I sent Mr Somerville a message asking if we could use his photo in an article and whether he could tell us more about Vimto in Malvern. To my delight, he responded right away.

Not only did he say we could use the photo but also he put me in touch with Paul Brownsey whose family had worked at Cuff’s between 1950 and 1956.

They lived next door to the Holy Well and he remembered helping his uncle bottle Vimto and other drinks.

Mr Brownsey said: “I spent a good deal of time in and out of the factory, sitting by the fire there when I came home from school, because Holywell Cottage, where we lived, was cold or earning pocket money by doing minor tasks.

"I was shown and had explained to me various aspects of the production and even helped with things like filling bottles of ‘still’ water directly from the Holy Well at the back of the factory.

“So far as concerns Vimto – yes, indeed it was bottled there. I am pretty sure I was told that the basic concentrate was supplied by Vimto and Cuff’s added the fizzy water.

“I suppose this must have been true too of the orangeade and lemonade and other drinks (eg quinine tonic) that Cuff’s produced.”

Interestingly, we also received a message from someone who had recently snapped up three old Malvern Water bottles and a wooden Schweppes Malvern Water crate at a local flea market.

We haven’t ascertained the date of the crate but the bottles probably date from the 1960s when the Holy Well was the site of Cuff’s Lemonade plant!

If you can tell us more about the bottling of Vimto in Malvern or have any other memories/memorabilia of Malvern water, we’d love to hear from you and will feature them in a future article.

Our columnist Carly Tinkler is the president of the MSA.