Woodhall Spa
Woodhall enjoyed an undistinguished history until the Napoleonic Wars when speculative coal mines were sunk in the area. One of these, on Tower Moor, was abandoned in the 1820s. This gradually filled with water which flowed onto nearby land owned by the Lord of the Manor (Thomas Hotchkin) who, on drinking it, found it alleviated his gout. Locals who sampled it found that their skin diseases and rheumatism were similarly cured. In 1838 Hotchkin created a well and built a pump room and bath house, he added to these developments in 1839 by building the Victoria Hotel and its recreation grounds, shrubberies and serpentine walks (at a cost of £30,000).
In 1839 the famous Dr Granville visited the new spa and suggested that the water was analysed, it was found to contain large quantities of sodium, calcium, magnesium chlorides and more bromine and iodine that any other know spa water, thus Woodhall became known as the ‘Iodine Spa’. Granville also made recommendations for how the spa might be improved in order to attract a better class of clientele:
It is not to be expected that my Lord-this and Sir-that, will like to frequent the very narrow and insignificant bath-rooms as they now exist, and dip in the scanty space therein allotted for each bath-tank, from which the honest farmer in the neighbourhood, or the shop keeper from Lincoln and Boston, have just emerged.
By the 1850s Woodhall boasted hot and cold baths for its visitors who could receive the fashionable ‘water cures’ in addition to drinking the waters. Bed and board was around 6/- a day (3/- for servants).The less well off also benefitted from the Woodhall waters and charitable institutions could send invalids to the spa for treatment at a reduced rate.
By the mid 19th century Woodhall received about 2000 visitors per year. The popularity of the spa was greatly increased by the opening of the Lincoln - Boston railway in 1848. Visitors could travel as far as Horncastle on the train and then catch a coach from a local pub to the spa. In 1855 the railway was extended as far as far as Kirkstead, leading to a further rise in visitor numbers.
In 1873 the Reverend J Conway Walker oversaw the construction of the a cottage hospital for the poor (it was claimed that after visiting the spa some of its patients nailed their crutches to the bath-house walls...) At the same time other hotels and bathing establishments were opening in Woodhall; the Hydro (later the Spa Hotel) was opened by the retired medical superintendant of the original spa.
In 1886 a syndicate to invest in Woodhall was formed by the Reverend John Otter Stephens, Rector of Blankney. The syndicate bought 100 acres of land from Thomas Hotchkin, including the Victoria Hotel and commissioned the architect Richard Adolphus Came to design a new town: a 'Lincolnshire Buxton'. What Came designed for Woodhall was, in fact, a garden city plan in miniature with tree lined streets and a designated shopping area all in a mock-Tudor red brick, tile hung, style. By 1890 Woodhall had expanded from a tiny village to a spa town of 100 dwellings, 25 of which were boarding houses. It had a quadrangular Mall with a ‘crystal covered’ promenade and ornamental tower and garden. As the spa was closed for 4 or 5 months over the winter the Mall was developed by Cames into the Royal Hydro Hotel (120 rooms and suites, gardens, bandstands and tennis courts. The quadrangle was covered in glass to become Winter Gardens). Cames’ improvements to the town helped to gain Woodhall an international reputation by 1900, associated business began to be established such as the bath and invalid chair business of Thomas and John Wield whose premises are now the Woodhall Cottage Museum.
As well as marketing itself on the beneficial qualities of the waters Woodhall also marketed itself on its air quality and generally healthy climate. The air was said to be: “Not only genial, dry and bracing, but abounds in ozone”. Walks were constructed so that the visitors could benefit from the healthy climate, the pine woods were a particular favourite.
The benefit to be derived from Sauntering at Woodhall is... from the quality of its air – some peculiar intermixture of the gases forming the atmosphere with additional exhalations from the earth and pine trees – to reanimate the drooping health of the valetudinarian.
However, in spite of its rapid rise to fame by 1920 Woodhall Spa was in decline, this is attributed to factors including the after effects of the First World War and in the destruction by fire of the Victoria Hotel in 1920. The spa was no longer attracting the same number of visitors, although the recently constructed golf course proved more of a draw. Railway posters from the period draw on an aesthetic of healthy activity to advertise Woodhall, walking, riding and playing golf were pictured.
The ex-Governor of South Africa, Sir Archibald Weigall, saved the syndicate by buying the baths from them and setting up the Woodhall Spa Baths Trust. The Weigalls owned Petwood House and occasionally played host to royalty. In 1933 Petwood was converted into a Hotel to try and boost the spas income. The Weigalls also paid for the construction of Jubilee Park and the open air pool.
In 1922 Captain Carleton Cole Allport converted a concert pavilion in the woods into the Pavilion Kinema, boasting one of the best projection systems in the country and as well as the usual tip up cinema seats the front 6 rows offered additional comfort and were deck chairs (they survived until the 1950s). The Kinema was renamed the Kinema in the Woods.
The Second World War saw the final decline of Woodhall as a popular spa, the baths became an ablution centre for the RAF, and the Petwood famously became the Officers mess for the famous 617 (‘Dambusters’) Squadron. Other of the hotels became army billets and the Royal Hotel was destroyed by two parachute bombs. However, the Baths Trust continued into the 1970s as did the rheumatism clinic. In 1983 the buildings over the wellhead collapsed and removing the last access to the spa
waters.
For more on Woodhall Spa try these...
Robinson, D (1983) The Book of Horncastle and Woodhall Spa, Barracuda Books
http://www.woodhallspa.org/
http://www.woodhallspa-museum.co.uk/
