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| A history of a fashionable spa Leamington appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086 as the small agricultural settlement of 'Lamintone'. In 1800 the village then known as Leamington Priors had a population of around 300, most living in humble cottages clustered around All Saints Church. Yet 40 years later it was a fashionable spa resort with over 12,000 residents.
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Its swift transformation was based on the exploitation of the local saline waters, first recorded in the 15th century. In 1612 John Speed wrote: ‘At Leamington, so far from the sea,
a spring of salt water boileth up'.
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The villagers knew the waters were good for making bread and preserving meat. They also believed that being dipped in them could cure rabies. Two local businessmen, William Abbotts and Ben Satchwell, wanted to use the waters to attract visitors seeking health cures. The original spring lay on the property of the Earl of Aylesford but he refused to exploit it commercially, keeping it open for everybody.
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In 1784 Abbotts and Satchwell found a second source of the spa water and built a bathhouse over it. By 1808, five wells had been discovered south of the river and had bathhouses built over them. One guidebook claimed that Leamington’s springs offered as much water ‘as could be required by the greatest number of invalids that attend any watering place in the kingdom’!
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| Leamington grew rapidly to meet the needs of its visitors. In the Old Town, new streets were laid out and lined with elegant terraces, and hotels were opened such as Copps' Royal Hotel on Clemens Street. Beginning in 1808 a New Town was laid out north of the River Leam. The Royal Pump Room and Baths, opened in 1814, was built ‘on a grand scale’ over the only saline spring found north of the river. Rows of elegant terraced houses were laid out either side of The Parade.
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Grand hotels like The Regent and The Bedford were opened. The famous Dr Henry Jephson began practising in the town in 1823. He set out new rules for 'taking the waters', with strict instructions about drinking and bathing, diet and exercise. By the 1840s Leamington had become a major centre for health cures, with seven spa water bathhouses.
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Leamington's rising fame as a health spa attracted 'the very tip top of society'. Visitors included the Prince Regent, Queen Adelaide, the Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark, and the Duke of Wellington. Queen Victoria visited in 1830 when she was a princess aged eleven. In 1838, a year after she became Queen, Victoria was ‘graciously pleased’' to allow the town to adopt the title ‘Royal Leamington Spa’.
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In the second half of the 19th century Leamington began to decline as a health spa. 'Taking the waters' was no longer so fashionable, while the advent of the railway had brought competition from the new seaside resorts. Soon the town's only surviving health spa was the Royal Pump Room and Baths.
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| Leamington's time as a fashionable spa resort had left it a legacy of fine buildings and elegant gardens. These made it an attractive place in which to live and work. By the 20th century Leamington was again prospering, this time as a commuter town for people working in Coventry or Birmingham, and as a centre for businesses connected with the motor industry.
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Today, Leamington is thriving as a centre for light industry and for specialist shopping. One of the town's newest shops is 'musthave', which meets the needs of customers wanting to look good and feel healthy. For all the changes of the last two centuries, Leamington remains the place to come for good health!
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