In the 1800s, a chemist shop on Belle Vue Terrace in Great Malvern (now a shop called Malvern Goldsmiths) was owned by three men; John Lea, William Perrins and the manager Walter Burrow. The shop front still displays the brass pillars dating back to this time. Lea, Perrins and Burrow started selling spring water and soda water and, for a while, they owned the sole rights to bottling and selling the water from Holywell and St Ann's Well. In 1850, Walter and his brother John Burrows bought out Lea and Perrins and expanded the bottling business, eventually moving to the first bottling plant which is now the Robson Ward Courtyard on Belle Vue Terrace.

Lea and Perrins subsequently moved to set up a chemist in Broad Street, Worcester. They were given a spicy sauce, brought back from India by Lord Sandys, and asked to recreate it. This they did, but thought the result was disgusting. They put their sauce away and forgot about it, but when they tried it again two years later they were very impressed with the taste instilled after fermentation. This was the start of "The Original Lea & Perrins Worcestershire Sauce".  Even to this day, the sauce is allowed to stand for 18 months before being sold.

The great grandson of William Perrins was Charles Dyson Perrins, the local philanthropist, after whom the Dyson Perrins C of E Academy is named.