WATER from a South Lakeland spring renowned for its health-giving properties is being bottled and could soon be quenching the thirsts of people throughout the world.

Three local men David Jones, Phil Lynott and Ian Needham -have pooled together their business and financial resources to create a multi-million pound water bottling plant in Flookburgh that is poised to start full-scale production this month.

They are claiming that their product Lakeland Willow Water - is unlike any other bottled water on sale in the world because it contains a compound called Salicin that is closely related to aspirin.

The water is pumped up into the state-of-the-art production plant from an aquifer 150ft below land once covered in vast forests of white willow that is the source of the Salicin.

"We have got a product here that is unique and which carries a history of therapeutic qualities," said Lakeland Willow managing director David Jones.

"Salicin is the base of lots of different medication and when you have got it naturally occurring in the water it's great. It's the first time that spring water naturally containing Salicin has been discovered and bottled."

Once fully operational, the plant will produce around 30 to 50 million bottles of water a year.

The business has a 14-year licence from the Environment Agency to extract 100 million litres of water from the aquifer annually.

Fourteen people are currently employed at the plant but more jobs are likely to be created.

There has been a great deal of interest in the product both at home and abroad, with a major contract to supply Booths supermarkets already secured and distribution deals being negotiated in the Middle East, USA and Japan.

According to Lakeland Willow's public relations company, doctors believe Salicin could be "a natural breakthrough" in preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) that has hit the headlines recently for its impact on travellers.

Mr Jones said that Lakeland Willow water would appeal to the airlines and travel industry and to those who have suffered from DVT or high blood pressure.

The water's arrival in the market place is the fulfilment of a 16-year dream for farmer Mr Lynott, who first discovered it bubbling from a small spring in one of his fields.

A story on the front page of The Westmorland Gazette in 1995 said the water had been found to have inexplicable healing properties and Mr Lynott told how after drinking the water, cancerous polyps growing on his bladder had "ground to an unexplained halt."

He also related stories of a 35 year-old pony that drank from the spring and had the teeth of a 15-year-old, and of a neighbour with a rheumatic shoulder who took the waters and was able after five years to sleep on the afflicted limb.

Meanwhile, Mr Jones claims that the water cleared up an eczema problem he had.

He has a portfolio of letters from people testifying to the water's healing qualities.

One from a local vet claims that an orange-sized tumour in a dog shrunk to the size of a golf ball after it had drunk the water.

Mr Jones said there was a mass of anecdotal evidence about the water's healing qualities going back hundreds of years to the time of the Cartmel monks.

The spring is situated only a mile from the Holy Well at Humphrey Head.

January 17, 2003 10:32