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Ladywell Baths

BordesleyExile

BordesleyExile

master brummie
The attached 1829-30 picture with the "baths" flag is intriguing. I know the location is Birmingham, but where?
The earliest mention I have of Ladwell Baths is by Pye in 1818, when he described the swimming / pleasure bath as being 36 yds x 18yds with a slope from 1' - 5'. Writers are consistent in describing the baths as being in the centre of a garden & surrounded by a 10' wall & tall trees. In 1830 it was recorded that there were 7 baths: hot, cold, vapour, medicated and shower. Beilby refers to a "bathing house" "attached to" the pleasure / swimming baths.
It is known that in 1823 there were 3 signatories to a lease of Ladywell Vapour Baths, namely Paul Moon James banker, Paul Munro & James Cummings. That document included a plan, which would be fascinating to see. Birm Archives MS3449 219.
Other possibilities for the location of the baths picture are the "very decent baths" referred to by Pye in 1818 at Newtown Row nr Lancaster St & less likely, Chalbeate Spring, the latter rather neglected by 1818.
Can anyone throw any further light on the picture?

image.jpeg
Note: this is a replacement image (from the Shoothill site) - may differ from the original image posted. Viv.
 
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Just a shot in the dark but i wonder if that is where Bath Street got its name.I am sure Mike will let us know if it was there before 1851.
 
Thank you, Colin. I read your that page of your site with great interest & learned something new today. I accessed Pye 1818, Hutton 1830, Beilby 1830 An Historical Sketch, Smith 1830 A compendious Guide, Lewis 1831 A topographical History, Hutton 1835, Osbornes Guide 1838, Whites 1849 & 1850 plus Cornish's Guide 1850 but your article has more details than I found. I see that you referred to Moth's City of Birmingham Baths Dept 1851-1951, a book I do not have a copy of. Are there any books ie from the bibliography that I have missed out, or have you returned the copy of Moth to the library? Any pointers to improve my research would be much appreciated.
Here is the map from Wrightsons Triennial 1818 which seems to show an L shaped footprint & a rectangular footprint.
 
From the directories, and West’s Warwickshire
1815 Brunner Paul, brush maker, and keeper of Lady Well Baths
1818 Brunner Paul, brush maker, and keeper of the hot, cold pleasure, and" (shower baths, Lady Well
1823 Monro and Co. fumigating and vapour baths, together with hot, cold, shower, and pleasure baths, Lady well-walk
1833 and 1833 Monro George, proprietor of Lady-well Baths, Lady-well walk. Also listed as Birmingham Baths
1839 Munroe, George, Ladywell Baths
1841-49 Monroe. Prop.of Ladywell Baths


West’s Warwickshire directory states:
Of BATHS, &c. Mr. Hutton, our best informant, says, " At Lady-Well, so called from the Virgin Mary, are the most complete baths in the whole island; they are seven in number, erected at the expense of £2000. Accommodation is ever ready for hot or cold bathing; for immersion or amusement, with conveniency for sweating. The bath appropriated to swimming, is 18 yards by 30, situated in the centre of a garden, in which there are twenty-four private undressing houses ; the whole surrounded by a wall 10 feet high.
And later:
While on the spot, we cannot omit giving a description of the present state of Lady-well, and the important improvements that have been connected with that never failing source of purity. Strangers can have no idea of the advantages which Birmingham possesses with regard to its Baths, and we really believe that thousands of its inhabitants, that have arrived at the meridian of life, are not acquainted with their arrangement and extent. In Mr. Hutton's day, they were seven in number, and cost nearly £2000. There are now ten, the additions of the new, and the improvements
of the old. Baths have, since they came into the possession of Mr. Monro, cost upwards of £2000 in addition. They are upon an extensive plan of comfort and accommodation, and bountifully supplied with the purest water. The 1st. or Ladies Bath, laid with marble,has an excellent dressing room adjoining it, and over the fountain the following lines are inscribed :—
" O'er this cool stream the goddess health presides.
And through the silent wave perpetual glides ;
Plunge then, ye fair, with fortitude descend.
The indulgent goddess will her influence lend :
By her kind aid the faded cheek resumes
The rouge celestial, and with beauty blooms;
Seize then her offer, try the lucid spring.
And, with returning health, its virtues sing."
O V E R T H E S E A T .
"The sparkling eyes grow languid,—faintly gleam.
When baneful sickness shakes the tender stream :
Bath'd in the flood transparent, health returns,—
The eye re-sparkles and the bosom burns.
With ncw-rais'd vigour: briskly through the veins
The blood meanders,—and the fair complains
No more of pulse too rapid, or too slow.
Of aching head, weak nerves, or spirits low ;
But, all alive, the animated form
Beams forth fresh charms, the coldest heart to warm."

The 2nd. or Gentlemen's Cold Bath, is neatly fitted up, with dressing
room, &c. for Non-subscribers. Tbe 3rd. is also a Cold Bath for Gentlemen, and is upon a good scale, being fifteen feet and a half square, and nearly four feet and a half deep, receiving a supply, from an abundant spring within itself, of twelve hogsheads per hour. It has private boxes fronting the water, and a convenient dressing room..
The following' appropriate lines appear under a good painting opposite the boxes :—
" Whoe'er thou art, approach'. has med'cine fail'd ?
Have balns aud herbs assay'd their powers in vain ?
Nor the free air, nor fostering sun prevail'd.
To raise thy drooping strength, or sooth thy pain ?
" Yet enter here, nor doubt to trust thy frame.
To the cold bosom of this lucid lake;
Here health may greet thee, and life's languid flame.
E'en from its icy grasp, new fire may take.
" What soft Ansonia's genial shores deny,
Zembia may give; then boldly trust the wave !
, So shall thy grateful tablet hang on high.
And frequent votaries bless this healing cave.
" Is rosy health the subject of thy boast?
Thy wish that active strength may long endure ?
Lest active strength and rosy health be lost.
Plunge in this limpid tide—thy bliss secure."
The 4th or large Swimming Bath is upwards of one hundred feet long and fifty feet wide; the gradual depth from three to five feet. This delightful bath, which is supplied with about one thousand hogsheads of water per hour from Lady-well and the surrounding springs, is in the centre of a neatly-laid out garden, well planted with high
trees, and enclosed with high walls, and is, perhaps, unequalled in any inland town in tbe kingdom.—The platform, flights of steps, and conveniencies for bathing and dressing are well constructed. The 5th or Temperate Bath, by an equal mixture of hot and cold water, produces in two or three minutes a bath of 82 degrees by Fahrenheit—
being about the heat of Buxton. The 6th or Hot Bath is made of fine veined marble, and is supplied from a large furnace with hot, and from a reservoir adjoining with cold, water. The heat is increased or decreased at pleasure, in a few minutes, to the temperature of Bath, Bristol, Buxton, Matlock, &c. The following lines, from
Thomson, are inscribed upon a tablet, surmounted by a stone vase, fronting the dressing boxes :—
" When sun's enlivening genial warmth diffuse.
Cheerful to this salubrious stream repair ;
And through the waves, at each short breath repel,
As humour leads, an easy winding path.
This is the purest exercise of Health,
The kind refresher of the summer's heats;
Thus life redoubles, and is oft preserv'd
By the bold swimmer, in the swift illapse
Of accident disastrous. Hence the limbs
Knit into force; and the same Roman arm
That rose victorious o'er the conquered earth.
First learn'd, while tender, to subdue the wave.
Even from the body's purity, the MIND
Receives a secret sympathetic aid."

This bath has been considered by the faculty as a great acquisition to the town of Birmingham. The Ladies' cold baths and dressingrooms are in a distinct building. There is also a distinct bath for the Jews, conducted upon the plan laid down by the High Priest, and the shower baths throughout the establishment are regulated upon
a new and improved principle. The dwelling house of the proprietorhas been newly erected, and fitted up in a handsome style; it extends upwards of sixty feet from east to west, and the whole establishment is not only highly creditable to tbe proprietor, but invaluable to the town of Birmingham.
The other Baths consist of the artificial waters of Harrowgate, Leamington, and Cheltenham; also sulphurous, aromatic, and topical fumigating or vapour Baths; these are upon an admirable and improved construction for invalids, the water being brought to a level with the dressing and bed-rooms. Invalids can also be accommodated with apartments.

However it looks as if other trades were on occasion at the baths. In 1830 there is listed;
Blundell Joseph, dyer, Lady Well Baths.
Mike

1839_map_Ladywell_bathsA.jpg
 
Thank you very much, Mike for all that research & the very full response. The map of Ladwell is certainly much more detailed than anything I found. What was the date of the map?
 
The book I took details from was a borrowed copy belonging to a friend.
It mainly concentrates on the history of Birmingham baths 1851-1951 with only a small piece on baths prior to 1851.

Colin
 
Thank you, Colin. There are a few copies for sale on the web, but if there is only a small section on Ladywell I will not order a copy on this occasion.
 
The map is the 1839 map published by the Soc. for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, as supplied by Peter Walker
Mike
 
An extract from the City of Birmingham Baths Department 1851 - 1951 by J. Moth. The Ladywell Baths near Hurst Street seem to have been supplied by springs. The baths were later moved to Snow Hill near Bull Street. They seem to have become sulphurous and fumigating. The emphasis looks more on medicinal too. Would these too have been supplied by springs or was it some mechanical process that produced vapour? Viv.

image.jpeg
 
Many springs were naturally vaporous, so I would have thought these were, but no evidence to prove it
 
i am amazed that these baths were around in 1791..just found this thread and found it very interesting..i wonder where exactly on snow hill the baths were moved to..

lyn
 
My Bodfish ancestors seemed to congregate in the Ladywell area in the 1850s as they moved in from villages in North Oxfordshire and South Northamptonshire, presumably to find better paid work.
 
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