These baths stand on the edge of the Welland meadows in Stamford, and incidentally mark the outer wall of the castle once built to protect the river crossing.
I had assumed the elegant building once housed a fashionable spa, but it turns out to have been home to public baths built because of the poor sanitary conditions in the town.
Yet Stamford did once have a medicinal chalybeate spring and today I found it.
It is in those same meadows, but some way out of the town. You can find it near the bridge that takes the A1 over the river.
An online forum carries memories of childhood Sunday walks to the spring to fill bottles.
I have found a video that gives the history of the spring and explains why it is now dry. I will post it here one day.
In the mean time, here are the photographs of it I took today. The nearby weir is part of Tinwell pumping station, that sens water from the Welland to Rutland Water.
My Aunt ran the baths at Stamford when I was a child she had 2 bathrooms and lorry drivers used to come for a bath I think it was 3d old money for a bath a towel and a small bar of lux soap
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, Pamela.
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