The Park Street Mineral Water Company

Mineral Water Manufacturers

It seems likely that this business was originally set up by H. George & Co. and was operating in Pipe Lane from at least May 1877 when they were advertising for a bottler for Codd’s patent bottles.
In the summer season, August 1877, the following advertisement appeared in the Western Daily Press:

LIME-JUICE NECTAR, first compounded and
introduced by us, now being manufactured and sold
by another Bristol maker without our authority. The only
original genuine is bottled in Codd’s patent bottles, with
“H. George & Co.” and registered trade mark en-
graved. To private consumers, 2s per dozen; to vendors,
1s 6d. — H. GEORGE & Co., Mineral Waters Manufactory,
Pipe Lane, St. Augustine’s, Bristol.

The rival company in question here was T. Brooke of Capt. Carey’s Lane, Old Market, who had been producing the product since at least 1874. Besides this product, H. George & Co. made Soda at 1s 8d; Lemonade at 1s 10d; Ginger Ale; Ginger Beer; Potass, Seltzer, Carrara, Lethia, Quinine Tonic, etc.

Arthur Clayden was a prominent non-conformist and a much travelled advocate of colonial emigration. He was born in 1828 in Wallingford, and was later secretary of the Independent College at Taunton until 1871, at that time the family were living in East Teignmouth. He was in Farringdon, Berkshire until around 1877. From 1878 he lived in Bristol at 8 Aberdeen Terrace, Clifton. He acquired the Park Street mineral water works from H. George & Co. after they had declined the business in 1878. The factory at that time was in the basement of the premises at 7 Pipe Lane, St. Augustines, there was also an entrance onto Orchard Street. The factory at the time of sale contained nearly 300 dozen Codd’s patent and other bottles. In May 1878 the rent was £19. 10s. a year.
On 24 May 1860 Arthur had married Julia, only daughter of W. Greenwood Esq., of Winterbrook, at the Market-place Chapel, Wallingford.
Clayden’s management of the factory was of fairly short duration. He died in 1899 in Hastings, Sussex.
Arthur Clayden offered a rather odd beverage for sale in July 1878:

A NEW SUMMER BEVERAGE.
PALATABLE, WHOLESOME, AND CHEAP.
ROYAL CHAMPAGNE CHERRYADE,
As supplied by the London Manufacturers to H.R.H. the
Prince of Wales.
Price 2s. 6d. per Dozen.
Bottles 1s. extra, to be allowed when returned.
Sole Manufacturer in Bristol-
-----------
Superior LEMONADE and SODA WATER,
2s. per Dozen.
GINGER ALE, 1s. 6d.
N.B. - A Six Dozen Hamper of the above delivered carriage
free to any address within 50 miles of the works on receipt of
P.O.O. for One Guinea.

Alfred Mason was a druggist by trade, born in Walcot, Bath in 1826 and baptised at Walcot St. Swithin on 26 November, he married Eliza Laurence at Walcot on 1 June 1847 by license. In 1851 he was a dispensing chemist at 8 London Street, Bath. Between 1861 and 1871 Mason was in New York in the United States, practising his trade. By 1880, however he is back in Bristol living at Tyndall House, Clifton. By this year he has an Aerated Water company at 11½ Park Street, and by 1881 he is employing 7 men and 3 boys. It seems that Mason & Co. monogram appears on bottles of both Park Street Mineral Water Co. and Robert Keevill's bottles implying a connection between these companies, although this could just be a manufacturing error but both companies were contemporary and operating in the same area. In July 1883 at Cardiff Police Court, Mason was prosecuted for selling soda water containing traces of lead. It is said that he traded under the name of the Bristol and Clifton Aerated Water Company. The case was dismissed after analysis proved the traces would not be injurious to health. By 1891 Mason was retired and he died at Tyndall Villa, Tyndall's Park Road, Clifton on 11 October 1899.

Lucius Melville O’Brien was born in Warnham, Sussex, in 1850. He received his articles of clerkship in Southampton, from Thomas Harrison Stanton, on 21 September 1868. He married Charlotte Barker in Westbury-On-Trym on 24 September 1873. Lucius’s father was the Revd. John O’Brien, vicar of Henfield, Sussex.
In 1875 it appears he was in Passenger House, Mendota, Illinois, where his infant daughter died on 1 August that year.
From 1887-1893 O’Brien was living at Hopewell Hill, Kingswood, Bristol. He was running the Park Street Mineral Water Co. from at least 1887 until its sale and closure on 4 September 1889. During his tenure the company was a member of the Bristol and District Mineral Water Bottle Exchange and Trade Protection Association. Lucius died in 1902 in Worcestershire. It is likely that Arthur G. Keevill bought the rights to the trade mark and probably the goodwill, intellectual and material items at the 1889 sale, because Keevill's "A1" trade mark was replaced by the phoenix and shield monogram around this time, but with the letter M & Co. still in the middle, this was only later replaced with K H & Co..

10oz Bullet Stoppered Mineral.* Parkstreet1.jpg
Embossed:  PARK ST MINERAL WATER CO. / BRISTOL (In circle) REGISTERED / (Phoenix with M&Co. monogram) / TRADE MARK (In centre).

No glassmaker's mark.

*Note: This particular bottle has an interesting history, it was discovered by Marc Boulanger in a coral reef whilst scuba diving off the shores of the island of Guadeloupe in the French Antilles. Find latitude 16.214693, longitude  61.534464, Ilet Cochon near the marina of Pointe-à-Pitre. It was very kind of him to return it to its home, it has been on an incredible journey.

10oz Mineral Water Bottle. Parkstreet2.jpg
Embossed:  PARK ST. MINERAL WATER CO. / BRISTOL (In circle)/  TRADE REGISTERED MARK (In centre above Phoenix with M&Co. monogram)

Glassworks: ? Cork closure.
Image courtesy Aled Rees.

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