Location: in the basement of Tudor House, a hotel on the Wells Road that was formerly a water cure establishment
Description: a brick-lined well with water at about 40ft down

This well is in the basement at Tudor House. When the house was built the servants' quarters and the scullery were here, so this well was probably used by the servants for domestic purposes. A substantial brass pump was recovered from the well in the 1990s, which may have been the pump cylinder for a hand pump that originally sat over the well.

Tudor House was built in 1852 by Dr Gully as accommodation for his wealthy male patients. It is linked to the adjacent Holyrood House by the Bridge of Sighs, so named because it separated male patients in Tudor House from female patients in Holyrood House. Gully's crest, a gauntleted hand holding a dagger, is on the wall of Tudor House, as is his motto, 'Die Wahrheit' - The Truth.

One of many visitors to take the water cure with Dr Gully was Alfred Tennyson in 1847. Other famous patients included Gladstone, Dickens, Macaulay, Charles Reade, Darwin, Bishop Wilberforce and Florence Nightingale.[1] Details of what might be expected are given in Letters to Frederick Tennyson. Described as a beautiful place, Malvern at the time had two water cure doctors, Wilson and Gully. Booking into the Foley Hotel the party observed that the hotel had nothing great about it except its charges! Mimicking Royalty they walked the slopes, not an easy task for legs of a certain age. 'Mrs Russell made a trial of the Water Cure, wore a compress and was towel packed, and seemed better for a cold bath.' When the Master of the Hotel realised what was going on they were told that they must pack their bags. The Foley never took in water cure patients! [2]

Tudor House has suffered from decay and neglect in recent years and a number of efforts to revive its fortunes have come to nothing. Despite being a grade 2 listed building it was not on the English Heritage 'At Risk' register and the Malvern Gazette on 12 February printed an urgent plea from The Victorian Society that Malvern Hills District Council should serve an Urgent Works Notice on the owner. The Planning Department was preparing its reply to the request but, ironically, on Thursday 18th February 2010, while the building was standing idly empty, it caught fire. The town was thrown into chaos with roads closed for the emergency vehicles, not helped by a heavy snowfall. These historic buildings are an important part of Malvern's spa heritage. New owners bought the property in October 2010. This has led to the conversion to quality apartments and major renovation sympathetic to the buildings heritage.

 
Illustrations:
1. The well in the 1990s - subsequently it has had a wall built around it.
2. Tudor House being renovated 2012.
3. From the rear 1992.

Footnotes:
[1] McMenemey W H. 1952, Water Doctors of Malvern, Proceedings of the Royal Soc. of Medicine Vol.46, p.8/9.
[2] Schonfield H J. 1930, Letters to Frederick Tennyson, Hogarth, London. P.81-3.  

 

The map alongside is a small section of our more comprehensive map of the area. For the complete map together with a description and history of this site see "Celebrated Springs of the Malvern Hills" (2012).

 

 

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Celebrated Springs of 
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A definitive work that is the culmination of 20 years researching the springs and wells of the Malvern Hills, published by Phillimore. This is the ideal explorers guide enabling the reader to discover the location and often the astounding and long forgotten history of over 130 celebrated springs and wells sites around the Malvern Hills. The book is hard back with dust cover, large quarto size with lavish illustrations and extended text. Celebrated Springs contains about 200 illustrations and well researched text over a similar number of pages, together with seven area maps to guide the explorer to the locations around the Malvern Hills. It also includes details on the long history of bottling water in the Malvern Hills.

Written by Bruce Osborne and Cora Weaver, this book is available on-line for £15.00 (delivered UK) - click Malvern Bookshop on the green panel top left. Alternatively send a cheque payable to Cora Weaver with your name and address to 4 Hall Green, Malvern, Worcs. WR14 3QX.