The untreated water gushing out of the Hayslad spout on West Malvern Road is piped directly from three natural springs on the hillside to the south of the West of England Quarry.
Although difficult to imagine, there is actually a 100,000 gallon Victorian built reservoir built into the Malvern Hills behind the spout that still works today! It was built in 1898. If you walk up behind Hayslad and to the South you can see the flat top of the reservoir with vents in the top of it. This allows water to the spout to be controlled if necessary. Large tanks were built behind many of the Malvern springs to ensure a steady flow at all times.
In 1893 the Conservators (now the Malvern Hills Trust) wanted to improve the spring by making it more presentable and reduce water spillage as water was filtering out. A stone trough was built for the use of man and animals passing along the road. However, this was vandalised numerous times, possibly by residents of Colwall and Mathon who relied on the water supply reaching them further down the hill. Some believe that they were vandalised due to the council carting water from the spring to the Wyche, as they had no other way of getting the water during drier seasons. Even to this day there exists a legal agreement which specifies the minimum amount of water that must be left to over-flow the trough down to these parishes.
Hayslad is the most popular place for people to fill containers with Malvern spring water and people sometimes have to queue to get to the spring. As a consequence of this congestion, the Malvern Spa Association raised funding through the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the Heritage Lottery Fund for a bifurcating spout (two water outlets) to be fitted in 2007 at the same time as restoring the well. There is a lay-by on opposite side of the road to the spout which has room for about three cars to park.
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