THE completion of a restoration project at one of Malvern's most historic water features was the big news 25 years ago.

John Parkes, who described himself, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, as an "eccentric property developer", invested his life savings in the project to restore Holy Well, in Malvern Wells.

He started the work four years previously when he was still living in Cardiff and at one point it was held up for two years.

"Altogether, he has restored three buildings under the project - the Georgian-style Rock House, the Holy Well itself and the adjacent cottage, now a very pleasant hillside home," reported the Malvern Gazette.

"Mr Parkes had thousands of bricks laid as the foundations of the Holy Well building were extended down at the back, where the spring comes from the hill, to more than 15ft in a tank-type structure, which prevents the well water being contaminated by other water running off the hills," said the Gazette.

Sadly, after Mr Parkes's death in the 1990s, the Holy Well building and the cottage next door started to fall into disrepair again, although Rock House itself, converted into flats and sold off, was spared this fate.

But, as the Malvern Gazette reported last year, Malvern couple Mike and Marian Humm, have picked up the challenge.

Having bought the site in December 1999, they have restored both the cottage and the accommodation in Holy Well house itself, for rental.

They are waiting for news about a lottery bid to enable them to restore the public room where the Holy Well spout is.

The history of the Holy Well dates back to 1558, when it was given to John Hornyold by Elizabeth I.

Dr John Wall, the father of the Malvern water cure, analysed the waters in the 18th Century and found them to be of "great purity".

Schweppes bottled Holy Well water from 1850 to 1890, when it opened its Colwall plant.