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The Baths and Wells
In
a sense, Harrogate became a property-owner once again in 1841; for
an important reason for the setting up of the Commissioners was that
they should control the medicinal wells. The Act had given them
authority to borrow £3,000, and this they exercised immediately, for
accommodation at the Old Sulphur Well was then quite inadequate, as
can be judged by the present Tewit Well, to which the old dome was
removed in 1842. A new structure, designed by Isaac Thomas Shutt (of
the family at the Swan) was decided on "to hold 150 people."
Incidentally, this first undertaking proved a serious threat to the
stability of the new government, for four of its members, much
preferring another design that had been submitted and feeling
convinced that favouritism had been shown, resigned almost at once.
They were amongst the leading Commissioners: John Dearlove, of the
Queen, who had been the most active opponent of Joseph Thackwray in
the law-suit of 1837; the Rev. Thomas Kennion, vicar of Christ
Church; John Green Paley, the rather autocratic 'but public-spirited
master of Oatlands; and Nicholas Carter, rising builder and
innkeeper, of the Prospect, who was destined to become the first
Mayor. Two of these eventually accepted re-election, considering
that their protest against the introduction of family interests into
local government to have been sufficient to prevent a recurrence.
The
Sulphur Well, with its new covering, was equipped with a pump and
re-named the Royal Pump Room. This change in the method of supply
offended those who had previously vaunted this sulphur water as
"natural," because drawn from an open spring, and had asserted that
any mechanism would destroy its virtue. The tactful Commissioners
allowed doubting clients to ladle it themselves from a spring in the
basement.
The
Tewit Well and the St. John's Well, which got a new cover also
designed by Shutt, were let from the beginning on a yearly tenancy,
but until 1845 the Commissioners took into their own hands the
management of the Royal Pump Room. They appointed a supervisor, and,
at first, three "well women." One of the latter was Elizabeth
Lupton, who had long served at the old well. She was retired, near
the end of the 1843 season, on a pension of 1s a day. A man was also
employed, during the popular early morning session, to work the new
pump, receiving 6d a day. After 9-30 a.m. the "out-well" (that is,
the outside pump) was in use and there was an attendant for this,
too. One disappointed woman applicant for this post annoyed the
Commissioner for months, it needing a Court action and, eventually,
police help to restrain her. There was trouble also with the well
women themselves, for in 1844 they had to be ordered not to beg
either inside or outside the drinking room. Later, all servants of
the Commissioners were forbidden to accept any perquisite.
The
supplies of sulphur water were jealously guarded: attendants must
not send "bottles or jugs" of it from the room. This order appears
to have been ineffective, for legal proceedings were taken against
bottling and even barrelling the water. In 1845, the Commissioners
compromised by permitting bottling provided the profits were handed
over.
The
Commissioners themselves, their Clerk and their Treasurer, every
local doctor, together with the families of all of these, were
served at the Pump Room free. Nicholas Carter, when he was again a
Commissioner, failed in his plea that this privilege should be given
up. But perhaps something could be said for his opponents' point of
view. The unpaid members of bodies such as the Workhouse Committee
and the Audit Committee that followed it still observed the
long-established custom of holding their business meetings in hotels
and had the wine bill settled from public funds. The Commissioners
did not, but rented a room of their own - at £4 10s. a year, with "
fire and candle." The substitution (for spirits) of sulphur water
(the official charge for which was 3d. a day) was a step towards
economy and, quite possibly, a healthier public service. Knowing how
short the public memory is for its benefactors, the Commissioners
also took the precaution of having their names inscribed on a tablet
in the Pump Room, at a cost (to the public) of ten guineas.
In
view of their many other duties they soon found the cares of
managing the Pump Room too much for them. In 1846, they let it to
their late Superintendent, John Fletcher, at a rental of £420 a
year. Their printed balance sheet for the year 1844-45 gives the
receipts at the Pump Room as £516. As Fletcher had had a wage of
only a pound a week as a paid official, and as the receipts could be
counted on to mount year by year, the new arrangement was probably
satisfactory to him as well as to the Commissioners.
The
Commissioners' first Clerk was a highly reputed local solicitor;
their Treasurer was also a solicitor, and later they appointed an
Auditor. These were salaried but, of course, not full-time,
officers. A wage-earning Collector was appointed for their Rate. To
meet the cost of getting the 1841 Act through Parliament, a rate of
1s in the pound had had to be levied, and the improvements suggested
by the full title of the Commissioners could not always be paid for
out of income or permitted borrowing.
The
Wells that were outside the Stray and that had been developed later
than the Award of 1778 - that is, the Cheltenham and Montpellier
Spas - the Commissioners left in private hands, though they made one
serious attempt to purchase the latter. They did, however, buy the
Crescent hotel, which had its own medicinal spring, and the
thirty-year-old Victoria Baths alongside, in 1868-70. In 1871, they
began their greatest building undertaking, that of the new Victoria
Baths, which were to remain until the present Municipal Buildings
were built in 1931. Part of the gardens in front of the latter is
the old Crescent site.
The
Commissioners shared with the Committee of the Bath Hospital in
improving the wells in the Bogs, and in making a road from them to
Cornwall Road (then the Irongate Road). Near this road they erected
the still existing Magnesia Pump Room in 1858.
The
minutes of the early meetings of the Commissioners show how
pre-occupied they were with the idea that they must prevent injury
to the Wells. They insisted on their legal right to prohibit, within
a radius of 300 yards (in 1866, extended to 600) of the Royal Pump
Room, the sinking of wells, and the making of deep drains or
house-foundations, and cellars. They occasionally allowed exceptions
to their own rule, considering each case on its merits; but they
ordered a considerable number of wells and drains to be filled in,
and they prevailed on the Duchy of Lancaster to insert appropriate
restrictive clauses when it leased its land to builders. |
