The Wyche Spout

This spout was once important to residents living nearby because of its unusual high elevation. It became less used after a public water supply was installed in 1913, and was closed in 1988 because of local contamination. It is now dry, but each year in May, it becomes richly decorated as part of the annual ‘Well Dressing festival’. It is one of about 130 spouts, springs, fountains and wells on the Malvern Hills, all there because of the purity of Malvern water.

Pure water

Malvern Water is famous for its lack of dissolved minerals, giving it ‘no taste’. It is derived from rainwater which percolates through the joints and other fissures in the Precambrian rock. It is entirely a myth that, as some people have suggested, that it comes underground all the way from the Urals!

The ‘water cure’

The purity of the water also gave rise to the development of Malvern town as a spa, to which people used to come for the ‘water cure’. As well as drinking the water, this treatment included patients being frequently doused in cold Malvern water. This practice died out by the end of the nineteenth century.

Task Site 2 Question

Where does Malvern spring water come from?

a) Local rivers
b) Rainfall
c) The Urals
d) Water companies