SPAS AND MINERAL SPRINGS
All wells are naturally mineral wells in the sense
that the water has some hard content; but there are
at least 31 places in Wiltshire where there are, or
were, wells which claimed to have water containing
minerals with curative properties. (fn. 1) These are:
Biddestone, Box, Braydon, Broughton Gifford,
Chippenham, Christian Malford, Clyffe Pypard,
Cricklade, Crudwell, Dauntsey, Draycot Cerne,
Heywood, Highworth, Holt, Kington St. Michael,
East Knoyle (Upton), Limpley Stoke, Luckington,
Lydiard Tregoze, Melksham, Poulshot, (fn. 2) Purton
Stoke, Rodbourne Cheney, Rowde, Seend, Sheldon,
Somerford (? Great Somerford), Swindon, Trowbridge, West Ashton, Wootton Bassett. It will be
seen that, with the exception of East Knoyle, they
all lie in north and north-west Wiltshire—none are
on the chalk, and most of them are found at junctions
of two or more geological formations. (fn. 3) There can be
no doubt that many other Wiltshire wells, including
some now filled in and forgotten, have, at one time
or another, had local repute for medicinal qualities.
The first wave of the national craze for spas seems
to date from the latter part of the 17th century to
about the middle of the 18th, and the second started
towards the end of the 18th century and lasted to
about the middle of the 19th century. During one or
other of these periods persons with an anxiety to
benefit their fellow creatures, coupled with a desire
to turn a more or less honest penny, tried to make
some of these Wiltshire wells into fashionable spas.
Extravagant claims were made and much literature (fn. 4)
published with the object of enticing patients to the
wells. Although none succeeded in becoming
fashionable, four-Holt, Box, Melksham, and Purton
Stoke-had some sort of success and are entitled to
be called spas. Several others seem to have made an
effort to establish themselves, or at any rate to have
had more than local fame, notably Chippenham,
Christian Malford, Limpley Stoke, Luckington,
Poulshot, Seend, West Ashton, and Wootton Bassett,
but none ever really became established and, as spas,
must be classed as failures from the start. The
remainder seem never to have aspired to spa fame. (fn. 5)
The earliest records of medicinal wells, with
approximate dates, are of those at Poulshot (1650),
Luckington (1660), Seend (1667), Box (1670),
Wootton Bassett (1670), Holt (1688), and Chippenham (1694), but some of these wells, e.g. Luckington
and Box, may have been used for medicinal purposes at earlier dates. The approximate chronology
of the establishment, or claim to the establishment,
of spas is, Holt (1713), West Ashton (1731),
Chippenham (1750), Box (Middlehill) (1786),
Melksham (1813), Purton Stoke (1859). It seems
fairly clear that most of the spas did not develop
from earlier 'holy' wells. The wells at Box (Middlehill), Holt, and Melksham are specifically stated to
have been discovered by chance to be medicinal soon
after they were sunk and the spas to have been
formed as the result of the discovery.
It is perhaps hardly worth recording the analysis
of water before 1825 since methods of analysis before
that time were apparently unreliable, (fn. 6) but many of
the waters were said to be chalybeate (Poulshot,
Seend, Box, Wootton Bassett, Chippenham, West
Ashton, Melksham), Holt was described as nitreous
and saline purging, and Purton Stoke as sulphate
and bromo-iodate saline. This last water, in common
with most modern medicinal waters, is also said to be
radio-active.
The waters were taken everywhere, except at
Limpley Stoke, by drinking, and at Box, Holt,
Melksham, Purton, and West Ashton they were also
used for washing the affected parts. Melksham and
Limpley Stoke are the only places at which baths are
specifically mentioned and it seems that these were
private baths. At some of the spas—notably Holt,
West Ashton, and Purton—the proprietors also
bottled the waters and sent them for sale to depots
in London and elsewhere and also directly to
patients. As to reputed cures, the advertisements—
particularly those issued from Holt, Melksham, and
Purton Stoke—claim cures for many ailments and
no doubt all the wells would have been willing to
use the motto which was said to have been over the
pump at Chippenham, (fn. 7) but by far the greatest numbers of cures recorded are for skin diseases, running
sores, scrofulous ailments of all kinds; some waters
(e.g. Poulshot, Holt, Luckington, and East Knoyle
(Upton)) were also said to be good for 'bad eyes',
but even this probably means only 'sore eyes'. There
is some evidence (fn. 8) that sanitary precautions—as for
example to prevent patients drinking or washing
with water in which other patients had bathed
running sores—were as non-existent as Smollett in
Humphrey Clinker recorded them to be at Bath in
1771 (fn. 9) and as they are still said to be at Lourdes. (fn. 10)
Most of the waters were aperients and diuretics and
Purton Stoke waters are claimed to be good for
rheumatics.
Following on these general remarks further notes
are now given on the four spas which seem really to
have some claim to the title, (fn. 11) treating them in the
chronological order of the dates—as far as they are
known—of their establishment as spas.
Although not the oldest of the medicinal
wells Holt is at once the oldest and the most successful of the Wiltshire spas, and its origin and early
history are well documented. There are over twenty
pamphlets and references in other works dealing with
the spa of which the most important is A brief
account of the Holt waters, containing one hundred
and twelve eminent cures, by Henry Eyre, 1731. The
well was sunk in 1688; the waters were first used
medicinally in 1713 and, since it claimed to be
famous by 1720, the spa may be said to date from
1713. The first keeper of the wells and the real
originator of the spa was the widow Grace Harding.
She began its medicinal use by curing a child of the
'King's Evil': and she at once saw the possibilities
and began to exploit the well as a spa. She had the
first-known pamphlet on the well published in 1723
and another, in 1725, which records that she was
bottling the waters and sending them once a week
to London. There is evidence that the waters were
in wide and high repute by 1728. The widow Harding
remained keeper at least until 1731 and died aged
70 in 1744.
There were at least four wells—called 'The Old',
'The New', 'The Great Nose' and 'Harris's'—all
within a few yards of each other in 'The Midlands'
on the site now occupied by Messrs. Sawtell's bedding
factory (O.S. Map 1/25,000 31/86, 63:22). (fn. 13) Numerous buildings went up, of which the Great House
was in existence by 1731, there was a cottage for the
doctor, and some of these and several other contemporary houses near the wells are still standing
although the Great House was demolished in 1957.
The owner of the land on which the wells were sunk
was the lord of the manor of Holt, Edward Lisle,
who died in 1722; his wife Mary, who was a keen
patron of the wells, died in 1749. Their son, also
Edward, sold the manor and wells perhaps in 1723
and certainly before 1744 to Dr. Simon Burton, a
popular medical practitioner of Savile Row, London,
who died heavily in debt in 1744. The manor came
to his son James Burton by 1767, (fn. 14) but on a map of
1773 the wells are marked as the property of a Dr.
Daniel Jones. (fn. 15)
By 1731 a certain Henry Eyre is 'master' of the
Holt wells. He seems to have been a professional
mineral-water agent who was probably brought
from London to develop the spa, possibly by Mary
Lisle (see above). He had returned to London before
1733. In 1776 the keeper was a Mrs. Read and in
1780 it is said that she had lived more than 20 years
on the spot. In that same year the proprietor or doctor
was Charles Nott. The proprietor in 1801 was David
Arnot who had apparently left or died before 1814.
Dr. John Rutty refers extensively to the wells in A
Methodical Synopsis of Mineral Waters, 1757, where
he expresses the suspicion that the waters had been
adulterated with marine salt. An advertisement in
the Bath Chronicle of 13 April 1780 seems to indicate
that the spa was thriving, and in 1784 G. A. Walpoole
in The New British Traveller mentions no other
spa in Wiltshire and says nothing about the village
of Holt except that it has a medicinal spring which,
since 1718, 'has continued in repute for the cure of
scorbutic and scrophulous distempers'. In 1801
J. Britton speaks of Holt as a little scattered village
'more famous for its medicinal waters than for any
other peculiarity' (fn. 16) and in 1814 the same author says
that the spring discovered 'upwards of a century
ago' has 'ever since continued to dispense the
blessings of health to numerous patients'. (fn. 17)
Design for the pump-head at Holt as shown in
frontispiece to A Brief Account of the Holt Waters by
Henry Eyre, 1731
In 1817, however, the Melksham Guide speaks disparagingly of the Holt spa but says that it has 'commodious lodging-houses and the distance affords an
agreeable ride to Melksham spa'. The Holt spa,
never fashionable, may have been in decline by then,
for in 1841 Granville in The Spas of England (fn. 18)
mentions no Wiltshire spa except Melksham which
he records as a failure. Certainly by 1850 the Holt
wells had fallen into disuse since Messrs. Sawtell's
bedding factory was built over them at that date.
Although Box had a medicinal well as early
as 1686 this was not the same as either of the two
wells which formed the spa. These latter were at
Middlehill; the first, and possibly both, were sunk in
1783. The waters were described by William Falconer in 1786. (fn. 20) By that time a pump room had been
built and about the same time a boarding-house and
other buildings, some of which still exist. It seems
that it had some fleeting success but, even more than
with Holt, it was really doomed from the start by
its proximity to Bath. In 1814 Britton could say
that the spa was a failure.
This, like Box, is another story
of a quick failure, which also must have involved
considerable financial loss. The spa site is still named
and the spa buildings still exist less than a mile from
the market-place on the Spa Road leading to
Devizes. A crescent of six houses was built on the
north of the road but a projected similar crescent on
the south was never begun. The baths and pump
room were in the grounds of the house now called
Agra. The original spring was first discovered when
a shaft was being sunk to find coal about 1770 but
the curative properties of the water were not
'brought to notice' until 1813. A second well had
been 'very recently discovered' in 1814. In 1815
several 'respectable gentlemen' formed the Melksham Spa Company which, after a year's work, completed a new well and which, apparently, put up the
spa buildings. Several advertising pamphlets were
issued between 1813 and 1822, but the few later
references make it clear that the spa had failed.
In 1841 Granville indicates that the fortunes of the
spa had not prospered (fn. 22) and in 1845 Britton states
that although the Melksham waters 'were formerly
much used . . . fashion, that fickle goddess, has not
given them the fiat of her approval'. (fn. 23)
Purton Stoke. (fn. 24)
This, the latest of the Wiltshire spas to be established and the only one still
showing any activity, developed from a medicinal
spring which had long been known and used locally.
It is a well, 10 ft. deep, known as Salt's Hole (O.S.
41/09, 85: 06). In the 1850's this was owned by a Dr.
Sadler who decided to establish a spa. He built a
pump room in 1859, the spa was formally opened in
1859 or 1860, and Sadler was no doubt responsible for
much of the literature which appeared shortly after.
Water was bottled as early as 1861; it was sent to
patients at a distance and delivered by special carrier
in Swindon and district. Sadler, besides being the
owner was also the spa doctor; the manager in 1863
was a John Strange who had then just opened the
Spa Boarding-House which with its 7 acres of
grounds was over 2 miles from the spa. By 1879 the
Spa Boarding-House was apparently no longer used
as such: the manager then was a Mr. Greenaway.
A ledger book seen at the spa house in 1952 recorded
sales of water dispatched from the spa (but not sales
at the spa) from 1869 to 1880 and from 1927 to 1948.
This indicates that the spa flourished up to 1872 but
that the business dwindled almost to nothing by
1880. This is confirmed by the author of an account
of Purton written in 1896, (fn. 25) who says that the virtues
of the waters were highly approved but that 'long
since their name and fame has passed away'. The
present proprietor, Mr. F. G. Neville, came to the
spa in 1927 and succeeded in reviving sales of water
which he used to take to Swindon for a few years, but
trade again declined and was almost extinct when
war broke out in 1939 and has not since revived.
But the spa waters may still (1957) be bought and
the spa may therefore claim to be the only Wiltshire
spa still in existence.
Among the multitude of spas which sprang up in
many parts of England in the 18th century very
few became successful or fashionable and so there
is nothing remarkable in the failure of the Wiltshire
spas. Indeed, Holt did have a measure of success
and a fairly long life. It could even be said to have
had some sort of 'season' in the summers of its
heyday from about 1720 to 1780, but it certainly
never attracted 'society'. There can be no doubt
that the fame and success of Bath inspired many
proprietors of Wiltshire spas with dreams of similar
grandeur, and there can equally be no doubt that the
very proximity of the Queen of the Spas was a
major reason for the failure of these tiny rivals. Few
would have chosen a season at Holt if they could have
afforded one at Bath. They had all died out—except
Limpley Stoke and the undiscovered Purton Stoke
—by 1841 and in that year Granville in recording
the failure of Melksham puts his finger on the
reason when he says that it was 'so near the great
leviathan spa'. (fn. 26) Nevertheless the spas served many
people and claim to have helped many. Some of
them were tenacious of their life—notably Holt and
Purton Stoke, and this tenacity is even more remarkable in some of the wells which never really aspired
to spa fame, as, for example, Poulshot, which according to Aubrey began its life about 1650 and was still
well known in 1862 (fn. 27) and used in the early part of
the 20th century. The well at Seend has had a similar
long life and Hancock's Well at Luckington recorded
in 1660 as being good for 'bad eyes' (fn. 28) has to this day
a similar reputation.