Old Fashioned Medicine

From: Eileen Pedley (xuegxae@CSV.WARWICK.AC.UK)
Date: Wed Feb 26 1997 - 16:56:36 PST


CURATIVE SPA WATERS

I too live in Leamington Spa and can confirm
that the taste of the Spa water is disgusting!

As a child of 6 or 7 yrs I remember frequent
visits to relatives who lived in nearby
Whitnash.  We used to go to the Spa water well
which was directly outside the Parish church
at the bottom of The Parade.  There was a stone
building in Victorian Gothic style on what is now
the forecourt of the church.  Inside the ornate
open arches, up several steep steps, the Spa water
gushed from brass taps into small marble basins
beneath.  Above the basins, chained to the wall,
were metal beakers from which the visitors drank.
I can remember my father laughing at my reaction
to the smelly salty water and my own feeling
that this was an unhygienic as well as nauseous
experience.  Alas the Well House is no more and
the famous waters now dribble feebly from a tap
on a stone plinth to the left of the Pump Rooms.

I little realised at the time that one day I would
actually live in Royal Leamington Spa in a house
no more than two minutes walk away from the well.
The deeds of this house state quite clearly that
the well which supplied water to the property
for many years was under a covenant which allowed
the water to be used for domestic purposes only.
In other words I am not allowed to set up a rival
Spa water fountain to compete with the existing
town supply!

Eileen P


================================
Eileen Pedley
eped@warwick.ac.uk
Moderator of "Granny's Kitchen" Project



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