M E

He noticed the reddish-brown hue waters of the spring foaming slightly from the ground and took his chances. Feeling greatly refreshed and instantly ‘clearing his head’ he continued on his journey to the London court.

Since that moment of inception, the wells continued to be known (second only to the Spa town of Bath), as the great place of English ‘water healing’ and drew the infirm, diseased and the curious.

Thirty years after its discovery, the first buildings were erected: two small cottages, one for ladies and the other for gentlemen, set up as a coffee and pipe-smoking rest stop. Its rooted and unequivocal connection to royalty occurred when Charles I’s physician, sent his wife, Henrietta Maria, to the springs to “re-establish her health” after the birth of Prince Charles in 1630. She remained there for a full six weeks. Soon after this prestigious visit, the area was renamed Queen Mary’s Wells – it didn’t stick and other names followed afterwards, including Frant Wells. Well into the 17th century the area came to have access to an assembly-room, a bowling green, in nearby Rusthall. At Southborough there was a bowling green, a coffeehouse, and a great number of lodgings. The advantages and diversions of the area increased but the distance to such nearby towns was inconvenient, especially in inclement weather when the route of escape to shelter, all became too much.

The terrain of the (now) town is fairly hilly and was not conducive to widescale building. However, ‘Mount Sion’ the first to be built upon, as houses were transported and rebuilt on the hill. A chapel was soon established so people could attend religious duties, and shortly followed by taking in the various amusements at thereabouts.

The connection to royalty continued with the appearance of a Danish princess and later Queen Anne brought her 9-year-old son Prince William, Duke of Gloucester. The prince fell on a slippery slope, so, the queen provided money to pave the walks.

The fame of the wells however, was only in its nascent years. The height of its popularity reached a crescendo in the following century. In 1739, Frederick, Prince of Wales and his wife, Princess Augusta of SaxeGotha, appeared in the now established spa town. The second daughter of King George II visited in 1762 and the Duke of York and the Duke of Gloucester in 1765 who were welcomed with a triple discharge of eighteen pieces of cannon. An eighteenth-century guide book described it thus:

Henrietta Maria painted by Sir Peter Lely after the restoration of her son Charles II to the throne.

Frederick, Prince of Wales

“The place itself is now in a very flourishing state, with a great number of good houses for lodgings, and all necessary accommodations for company; its customs are settled, its pleasure regulated, its markets and all other conveniences fixed, and the whole very properly adapted to the nature of a place, which is at once designed to give health and pleasure to all its visitants.”

To be continued next month.

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