There's something in the water in Colwall - a village dominated by the Malverns like its more famous neighbour, but with an atmosphere all its own. Words: Andrea Calvesbert. Photographs: Martin Humby

Visitors to Colwall today may be surprised to find such a thriving, busy village a stone's throw from Malvern.

Nestled at the foot of the western slopes of the Malvern Hills, Colwall today greets visitors with a variety of shops and businesses catering for everyday needs such as a grocer, butcher, a bank and a post office. These sit alongside an eclectic mix of more specialist businesses such as a delicatessen and bakery, estate agent and the renowned Colwall Park Hotel. Further down the main street there's a hairdresser, pubs, a primary school, train station and a recently opened Thai restaurant, while further up is the landmark Coca Cola Schweppes factory tapping into the famous Malvern Spring Water.

The village is well catered for, with amenities including a school, cricket club, church and many groups and societies.

It is a pretty village with a rather unusual mixture of businesses which cater for residents as well as, in the case of Schweppes, using Colwall as a base for its international trade.

The present Schweppes factory was built in 1892 and now more than 12 million litres of Malvern water is bottled and sold annually including sparkling and still varieties. It employs 30 people on a shift system to enable production to continue 16 hours per day. Malvern water has the accolade of being the only bottled water used by the Queen.

Speak to the older residents and read a bit of local history however, and it becomes clear that Colwall today has changed dramatically.

For those prepared to look carefully there are still some hints to Colwall's colourful past as a popular destination for the upper classes coming to take the world famous waters.

A stroll up Evendine towards the hills passes the old golf club house built in 1911 to serve the course which had opened in 1908. It is easy to picture well-dressed gentry strolling around the rolling countryside towards the 18th green. The club house was sold as a private dwelling in 1929.

Another hint to its illustrious past can be seen while walking the hills above Colwall in the area around The Kettle Sings caf. A particularly large, oval-shaped field can be seen, which was Colwall Park Racecourse.

The course opened with its first meeting in May 1900 and the Horse and Jockey pub was renamed in its honour -- the pub was originally called the Horse and Groom and is now the Beau Thai restaurant.

Races were held over two miles 50 yards upwards and racing continued throughout the First World War before the course closed in 1939.

One of the most famous names which helped to shape Colwall as it is today was the Ballard family.

They built many of the cottages and houses in the centre of Colwall to house their own family and workers at their numerous businesses which included, at end of the 19th Century and beginning of the 20th Century, a vinegar brewery. Vinegar brewed here won awards around the world and at its height the Colwall brewery was producing 2,000 gallons a day.

Other businesses which shaped Colwall as it is today included a brickworks, orchards for fruit canning and bottling and a sawmill to make the most of all the wood.

The Ballards also instigated the creation of several roads in Colwall including Jubilee Drive, named as it was started in Queen Victoria's golden jubilee year of 1887.

As well as being a thriving village in its own right, Colwall has always played an important role to Malvern, not least as a rail link.

The huge feat of engineering required to create the rail tunnel from Colwall to Malvern was to ensure the area didn't miss out on the industrial boom of the late 19th century. It also ensured the area was easily accessible for visitors coming to take the waters.

Colwall's station was extremely important not only as a passenger terminal but as as a busy goods yard. Trains were required to stop at Colwall as the descent to Malvern through the tunnel was so steep they had to have a standing start to ensure they didn't gather too much speed. It also enabled the guard to jump out and use his shunting pole to put the brakes on as many trucks as he thought necessary.

There is only room here to scatch the surface of colwall's busy past but it has surely played as important a part in shaping the history of the malvern hills thamselves.

Colwall may possess the timeless beauty of a quintessential English village, but it's no timewarp - the spire of Coca Cola's Malvern Spring Water bottling plant show that beneath the surface modern economic activity is thriving.

The village church and half-timbered houses provide evidence of Colwall's mediaeval past.

No village would be complete without a pub or two.

The countryside around is as enticing as the village itself.