How did Leamington develop into a typical spa town of the mid nineteenth century?

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Farrah Hanif

10 Green

History Coursework

Q1: How did Leamington develop into a typical spa town of the mid nineteenth century?

A typical spa town is known to be a place where mainly wealthy people would come to consume the towns spa water as a laxative. After taking the water the people would take a long stroll along the main street known as the “parade” or “promenade” or maybe go to the gardens to find suitable marriage partners.

To be given the proud name of a “spa town” the town would need to have all these essentials; firstly the most important is the own supply of water in the form of springs, wells and numerous baths and the pump rooms. The entertainment facilities would have to include a theatre and  assembly rooms.  There would need to be walkways and a main street along with gardens. There would have to be Georgian/Pilladian/ Regency architecture on all the main streets. Because spa towns would have attracted a lot of tourism there would need to be many houses to accomodate everyone, that would usually be found in circuses, crescents, sqaures and terraces. There would also be a need for grand hotels. Churches would also be a main part of a spa town, as people would be religious, and of course good transport links.

All of this could never happen to a town without the odd determined people who invested thier lives into making a town a succesfull spa town.

 Before Royal Leamington Spa was transformed into a spa town it was initially known as Leamington Priors belonging to the Priory in Kenilworth. It was a tiny village consisting of 300 people and 67 houses until the era of the 1800’s. The land, in 1529, got passed between numerous nobles, landowners and crowns. The spring waters were first acknowledged in 1586 in the Camden Records, when it wasn’t that significant, the water was described as cold and salty, but towards the end of the 18th century spa towns were becoming increasingly famous and fashionable. It wasn’t until 1786 that two friends William Abbots and Benjamin Satchwell discovered a site of a new spring called the Abbot’s Saline Baths, which was later to be Smith’s Baths.  Over the next few years an increasingly large amount of springs were being establish, some on Bath Street, High Street and Clemens Street, these were all to the south of the River Leam, and the only spring that was found north of the river was the Pump Rooms in 1810. Because Leamington was beginning to attract many tourists’ grand architectural buildings and hotels had to be constructed to accommodate the large amount of people arriving everyday, and to persuade them to stay longer.

Between 1800 and 1850 Leamington grew drastically as before it became a spa town there were only 300 habitants but towards the end of the transformation there were more than 15,000.

Springs & Wells:

The first spring found in Leamington was in a small pond outside All Saints Church in 1480. It was named Aylesford Well owned by Lord Aylesford. He supplied people of Leamington with this special water. He charged 1d (1p) for people to take the water inside the church, but it was free to the poor outside. This was an endless supply of water. Many more people so the potential this water had on people and how it could make Leamington famous as well as themselves and they wanted the chance to make some money, but Lord Aylesford didn’t want to develop any further and so left the others to exploit the land, he believed the water should be free to everyone to drink.

The water was known to be able to cure many disorder such as; stiffness of tendons, rigidity of the joints, the effects of gout and rheumatism and various paralytic conditions.

The back of the All Saints Parish Church in Leamington Spa.

In Bath there are the only hot springs in Britain at the constant temperature of 46ºC providing Bath with 240,000 gallons of hot sulphurous water everyday.

The Romans founded the first spring before their empire collapsed leaving everything in ruins. It was established in 43ad called the Roman Spring “Aquae Sulius”

The water was thought to be able to heal many illnesses, for example; rheumatism, arthritis, diseases of the liver and a wide variety of skin problems.

In Cheltenham the first spring was founded in 1718 where the Princess Hall, Cheltenham Ladies’ College is now situated. A well was dug near the spring named the Original Well or Old Well or Royal Well or Kings Well.  There were also a few more wells created nearby. There was the Sherbourne Well, the Montpellier Spa founded in 1809, and the Imperial Spa in 1817.

From all the above it is notable that the transformation of a small town into a splendid spa town in the 1800’s relied on it’s own distinguished supply of water, which was believed to be water that cleans the body of any foul substances and to help cure or heal any disorders of the body, which attracted people to come and take the waters for themselves.

Leamington was supplied with an endless amount of salty sulphurous cold water, Bath has hot sulphurous water supplied at 240,000 gallons a day, and Cheltenham had natural alkaline water containing sulphates of magnesium and sodium. Cheltenham’s supply of water was unpredictable, as it would sometimes dry up. This prevented it from doing as well as Leamington Spa or Bath.

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Baths:

There were many baths created towards the south of The River Leam in Leamington due to the facts that this was the route of the main London to Warwick road and the stagecoaches passed through this way, and the land on the south side of the river is limestone and so it makes it easier for the water to rise up and the spring water is easy to find when digging down.

William Abbot and Benjamin Satchwell were two of many people who tried to succeed Leamington as a splendid spa town. They were both ...

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