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Page last updated 27th April 2016

Shelvey's Mineral Water Manufactory

Between 1882 and 1931
Shelveys owned the second largest mineral water company in the UK.

The pictures below are from an advert insert in "The Homeland Handbooks", "Hove" 1909-1910 edition by The Homeland Association Ltd.

Check out the wording of the advert, we were jolly polite back in those days!



Picture below of Katie Prevett outside her shop in Hove displaying a large Shelvey sign in the window.
Picture kindly provided by Brian Prevett. If anyone knows which street this was in please let me know.

Katie Prevett Shop In Hove

Photo below of 2 bottles I obtained through ebay


Place mouse over picture to rotate bottles

Close up of both sides of bottle top



Below: Seltzer bottle, kindly sent in by Dennis Borghouts from the Netherlands.

Move mouse over picture to zoom in.



Below: An 8.5cm bottle opener I purchased off ebay.

Move mouse over picture to see reverse.




Picture of bottles on the right are from my collection, (all purchased from Ebay).
The large one is almost 20 inches tall.


Photo below Horsted Keynes Station, Bluebell Steam Railway.
Photo taken 6th May 2001, kindly supplied by Ron Shelvey

Picture below of Bus with Shelvey advert - kindly provided by Martin John Shelvey.


Picture below of a large framed orignal showcard - kindly provided by John Ault.


 

Details of factories

Text sourced from - http://aquabluemusic.users.btopenworld.com/ginger/page2.html

Shelvey & Co Ltd, Albert Works, Brighton (Screw Top, White Bottle)
Shelvey & Co Ltd, Albert Works, "BRI", Brighton (Screw Top, White Bottle)
Shelvey & Co Ltd, Brighton & Eastbourne (Printed Face & Shoulder)
Shelvey & Co Ltd, Brighton & Eastbourne (Printed Face & Shoulder White Bottle)
Shelvey & Co Ltd, Eastbourne Guildford & Worthing (Shell Trade Mark)

Shelvey's Mineral Water Manufactury, as it was once known, was ranked the second largest in the country. They were in business from 1882 to 1931. In their early years they were located in German Place, Brighton. The street had its name changed during the 1914 war for obvious reasons. Shelvey's were later located at Paston Works, St Georges Road, Paston Place. The name Albert Works was found on some bottles. Around 1903 there were three branches as well as the Brighton works. These were at Station Road, Worthing, Commercial Road, Eastbourne and the last was located in Guildford, Surrey. The Guildford premises were bought by Purnell's of Guildford in 1918. D Hunt

Purnell & Co, Honey Sweetened Ginger Beer, Guildford (Champagne)
Purnell's of Guildford was founded around 1918 by Edgar Purnell. He had been associated with Shelvey's who ran a business on the premises prior to this (he was the manager of the Guildford branch). Purnell's continued to use stone ginger beer bottles up to 1946 when their factory was bought by R Fry & Co, Brighton. The Purnell's factory was located initially in Bedford Road (which is still standing) then after 1927 in Bedford Road and Bury Street. After Edgar Purnell died in 1936, with his family carrying on the business, the firm moved to Stoke Road, Guildford. D Hunt

Map of Factories

Place mouse over image to zoom in and out.

The Guilford Factory is now a nightclub?

Whilst searching on Google for further information on this subject I stumbled across a link referring to Shelvey and Bar Mambo. You can find this by entering a search in www.google.co.uk for - Shelvey bar mambo

Google returns the following excerpt, but unfortunately the link is now dead. I have emailed the web administrator to try and retrieve this file.

[PDF]BRIDGE STREET AREA APPRAISAL
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat
... built 1901 Rodboro Buildings built (as Dennis factory) 13 and 15 Bridge Street
built 1905 Shelvey's Mineral Water manufactory built (now Bar Mambo) 1906 St ...
www.guildford.gov.uk/pages/environ/ plan/BridgeStreet.pdf - Similar pages

Pictures below of Bar Mambo, Bridge Street, Guildford (www.barmambo.com)
Pictures copied from http://www.turbosound.com/sites/mambo.html


Mystery of the wooden utensils inside a Shelvey bottle.
Discovered on a huddersfield rubbish tip dating to around 1910
Pictures and information kindly sent in by Ian Kilroy.

Ian believes these may have been put in at the Factory, perhaps as some sort of marketing gimmick? If you have any theories please let me know.




My latest Ebay purchase. A Shelvey Ginger Ale bottle with remains of label -


Label has the BRI logo. The small print at the bottom states "Brighton, Eastbourne, Guilford, Worthing." Followed by "Sole Manufacturers" on the last line.


Check out the website "Swansea Bottles" which has some great pictures of Shelvey ginger beer bottles and information about bottles mostly from South Wales but also from Brighton.

Newspaper clip below supplied by Chris Shelvey, read section from the red arrow.

London Gazette 1896.

Newspaper clips below kindly provided by Brighton History Centre

Brighton Herald Newspaper Advert - Dated 05-10-1912

Brighton Herald Newspaper Advert - Dated 05-10-1912

Brighton Herald Newspaper Advert - Dated 14-09-1912

Brighton Herald Newspaper Advert - Dated 14-09-1912

Brighton Herald Newspaper Clip - Dated 12-10-1912

Brighton Herald Newspaper Clip - Dated 12-10-1912

Brighton Herald Newspaper Clip - Dated 30-11-1912

Brighton Herald Newspaper Clip - Dated 30-11-1912

Many thanks to David Shelvey, Ron Shelvey and Chris Shelvey for bringing this subject to my attention and to all who have contributed information.

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