Eager to offer his advice John Hiles soon became engaged in discussion with John Clifford who orchestrated the appearance of the pump and engine at the Three Counties Showground. In the picture they are seen debating the state of the valve chambers and the problems of putting the pump and engine back in water.

   
The Autumn Show weekend was a most memorable occasion that created a lot of interest. Our thanks must go to all who helped to ensure the pump and engine became the star turn, especially John Clifford, without whose efforts and enthusiasm it would not have happened.

 

 

We are lucky in Malvern to have such reliable springs, but some have been a bit low on flow recently. The long, dry summer has reduced Hay Slad to a bit of a trickle, though if the water flowed through one spout instead of two it wouldn't look quite so depleted. It hasn't stopped the hopeful queues at the spout. St Ann's Well was also much reduced, though is always more susceptible to low rainfall. Malvhina continued to gush as usual. Imagine now what life must have been like until the middle of the 20th century, back to the days when there were frequent summer droughts and rarely enough reservoir capacity to cope with the increasing population. There were some summers in the 19th century when the Council cut off the water, only turning it on for an hour or two day - but not telling anyone which hours that would be. As ever, 'waste not, want not'.

 

What brought the subject up about spring reliability was a recent exploratory visit to near Chalford in the Cotswolds.

 

A party of Friends were out exploring water features in the Cotswolds recently. This included having a look at the Sapperton Tunnel, on the derelict Thames and Severn Canal in Gloucestershire, In its day it was the longest canal tunnel in existence, being well over two miles in length. It was built in 1789, over 200 years ago.

 

Then quite by chance the party saw the source of the River Thames marked on the map. Cora, unable to contain her enthusiasm for discovering a new spring led the party across hill and dale until we espied a massive granite monolith. The inscription in the granite read 'The Conservators of the River Thames 1857 - 1974. This stone was placed here to mark the source of the River Thames'. 

 

The only problem was where was the water? It would have been great to have seen a prolific spring erupting from the boulder filled hole adjacent to the monolith but this was not to be. Maybe the water table was low or else the Thames had moved? From source to mouth the Thames is 184 miles long we are told. Hopefully it is not all dry. How lucky we are in Malvern to have reasonably reliable springs that flow year in and year out. In the picture disappointed Cora investigates the boulders while local Friends Eli and Rich patiently offer words of encouragement and wonder whether they would do better to live in Malvern.