Where Would Malvern Water Be Without Rain?
St Ann's Well, The Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, England, UK
September 28, 2018, 16:58 UTC (17:58 local time)
© 2018 Robert Bilsland, All Rights Reserved.
One of the things that Malvern is known for around the world is it's water. For locals it appears out of taps, spouts and troughs, dripping out of rock faces or just appearing in holes all over the hills. For people further afield it is bottled, originally by Coca-Cola Schweppes but more recently by the Holywell Water Company Ltd.
The rain that falls on the hills permutates down through the fractured pre-cambrian malvernian granite and limestone rocks, filling aquifers until they overflow above ground. The hills are amongst the oldest and hardest rocks found in the United Kingdom, which is said contribute to the quality of the water that flows through them. In 1756 Dr John Wall tested the waters purity saying that "The Malvern water is famous for containing just nothing at all".
This panorama shows St Ann's Well, built 1813 to promote the health benefits of the water cure, it was believed that for maximum effect it should be drunk on the spot. During the early days of the cure it was one of the most popular places for wealthy individuals to visit. It wasn't until 1892 that Lady Foley donated the Sicilian marble spout and basin that you see. The spout is in the form of a dolphin's head positioned above a shell-shaped basin.
St. Ann's Well, Malvern - Wikipedia
Taken with a Nikon D300 and a Nikkor 10.5mm f/2.8G fisheye lens. Mounted on a Nodal Ninja 5 panoramic head and R-D16 rotator atop a Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod. 5 bracketed shots (-2 -1 0 +1 +2) taken at 6 positions 60° apart, tilted 15° down, another set of shots taken looking straight up and a final set of shots offset from the others but looking at the floor that the tripod was standing on. Raw files then processed in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5.7 before being blended into single views and stitched together using PTGui Pro 10.0.17 and converted using Pano2VR 4.5.3.
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