Mumby's Mineral Water
Charles Mumby's mineral water factory supplied the Royal Navy, held a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria, and served at least two subsequent monarchs. The last part of his yard survives today.
Charles Mumby's mineral water factory supplied the Royal Navy, held a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria, and served at least two subsequent monarchs. The last part of his yard survives today.
The factory yard, Gosport
In 1849, Charles Mumby, a pharmaceutical chemist from Chatteris in Cambridgeshire who had settled in Gosport five years earlier, opened a shop at 47/48 High Street and began manufacturing mineral waters.
In the large yard behind the shop, with rear access from North Street, he sank an artesian well deep into the chalk subsoil beneath Gosport. At somewhere between 345 and 384 feet, he hit natural water. That borehole became the foundation of an empire.
The fame of Charles's soda water, ginger beer, and lemonade spread rapidly across the south of England. Within a few years he was supplying large quantities to both the Army and the Royal Navy, which were traditionally victualled from Gosport. He also manufactured ice on-site using steam-powered machinery.
Charles Mumby's crowning achievement was a Royal Warrant from Queen Victoria. Mumby's was one of only four brands of mineral water served at her table. The warrant was renewed under subsequent monarchs. Bottles survive embossed “Makers to Her Majesty the Queen” (Victoria) and “Makers to H.M. the King” (Edward VII and George V). The current owner holds glassware bearing the King's appointment wording.
Charles Mumby was far more than a manufacturer. He became one of Gosport's most prominent civic figures, holding positions as Poor Law Guardian, magistrate, and County Councillor for Hampshire. He sat on innumerable public and social committees.
In 1864 he became a member of the Board of Trustees that governed the town. From 1881 to 1894 he served as Chairman, overseeing a period of transformation: streets widened, old fortifications removed, areas of open ground acquired for recreation, and a Free Library established.
Charles was also Colonel of the 3rd Volunteer Battalion Hampshire Regiment - the Third Hampshires. A Nonconformist Liberal, he was a founder member of the National Liberal Club. In 1891 he acquired 30 acres of land for just \u00a3100 and gifted it to the town as Gosport Park.
Colonel Charles Mumby. Cabinet card by G. West & Son, Southsea
As Poor Law Guardian, Charles was directly responsible for the welfare of Gosport's most vulnerable residents: the destitute, the sick, and families unable to support themselves. He died at Waterloo Station in 1895 and is buried at Ann's Hill Cemetery, Gosport.
Pharmaceutical chemist from Chatteris. Founded the business in 1849 at 47/48 High Street, Gosport. Retired 1885. Poor Law Guardian, magistrate, County Councillor. Chairman of the Board of Trustees for 13 years. Founded Gosport Park.
Took over when Charles retired in 1885. Oversaw the public flotation of the company in 1898, greatly enriching the family. Died 1906, leaving a third of his majority shareholding to his only son Cyril.
Appointed Managing Director in 1907. The firm employed approximately 100 workers in two factories with \u00a345,000 capital. Wounded at Nonne Bosschen, First Ypres, November 1914, serving with 1st Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment. Resigned directorship 1924. Died 1938.
The business was sold out of family ownership after Cyril's death but continued to trade under the Mumby name until the 1960s.
Mumby's bottles are now collectors' items found across the world, from antique markets in Sussex to archaeological digs in Bermuda, Halifax, and Esquimalt, British Columbia. Two bottles recovered from Esquimalt Harbour are now in the Royal British Columbia Museum, directly linking the Royal Navy base at Portsmouth to naval stations across the British Empire.
The distinctive torpedo shape prevented the bottle from standing upright, keeping the liquid in contact with the cork to maintain carbonation. Hand-finished blob tops. Approximately seven variants produced.
Every bottle carried a slug plate embossed with a fouled anchor and the word “TRADEMARK”, with “C. MUMBY & Co PORTSMOUTH AND GOSPORT” on the body. Naval heritage stamped into glass.
Victorian bottles: “Soda Water Makers to Her Majesty the Queen.” Edwardian and later: “Makers to H.M. the King.” Surviving examples confirm the warrant was renewed across multiple monarchs.
Salt-glazed earthenware flagons bearing the Mumby's name. Over 100 bottles and flagons from this period are held in the Gosport Museum collection.
Sparkling Limeade label
Green Ginger Wine label
The building on Mumby Road, Gosport
The original premises at 47/48 High Street housed the shop, the artesian well, and the manufacturing works. A Portsmouth office opened first at 71 St George's Square, then from the late 1870s at 34 The Hard. By 1907, the company operated two factories.
The last remaining part of the Mumby Mineral Water Company is the white gable-ended building on Mumby Road, opposite the boat stack in what is now Camper & Nicholsons' yard. It was most recently used as Arthur's Chandlery. The side wall and windows formed part of the Chapman's Alley / Brewhouse Yard boundary.
The building has a remarkable wartime chapter. In 1941, when Camper & Nicholsons' facilities were extensively damaged in air raids, destroying most of the company's historical records, production was moved to temporary workshops in Mumby's mineral water works on North Street. From these premises, workers built Motor Torpedo Boats, landing craft parts, and components for the Mulberry Harbours that would be towed across the Channel for D-Day.
The last surviving part of Charles Mumby's factory was saved from dereliction in 2022-2023. The building, the white gable-ended structure on Mumby Road, opposite Camper & Nicholsons' boat stack, was commercially unviable in its existing state.
Planning permission has been granted for a sensitive conversion into six flats for small families. It is a use that Charles Mumby himself would have understood. As Poor Law Guardian, he spent years of his civic life dedicated to the welfare of Gosport's most vulnerable residents. That the final part of his yard should now provide homes for small families brings his story full circle.
Coverage of the planning application for the former Mumby's mineral water factory building in Gosport.
Report on the conversion of the last surviving building of the Mumby's Mineral Water Company.
The information on this page is compiled from local history archives, museum collections, company records, and archaeological reports.
If you have bottles, photographs, catalogues, or stories connected to Mumby's Mineral Water, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Mumby's is a brand of Sheldon Property Ltd. Company No. 13426085.