The Abbeystead Estate is not connected to mains water. Instead, 28 homes, three farms, a pheasantry, the school, garages and workshops and all the greenhouses are supplied with fresh water from a natural spring.

The spring itself lies deep beneath what is known locally as Heartbreak Hill, and the first pipework was put in around 1885 when Earl Sefton owned the estate. Now, as then, gravity brings the water down from the fell and it is supplied at 56psi without any additional pumping or power supply.

A local farmer has capitalised on a similar spring and has created a new bottled water which is now marketed as Trough of Bowland Spring Water. The Duke demonstrated his support for this intiative by officially opening the business and arranging for Bowland Spring to be used by the businesses within the Grosvenor Estate portfolio and served at the Chester Grosvenor & Spa.