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Question

What can you tell me about the Salt's Hole in Purton, and the medical properties of the water drawn there?

Question asked on

04 July 2011

Answer

The mineral water which bubbled up from a hole in one of the fields of Purton Stoke, had been used for hundreds of years as a medicinal drink by the poor people of the area. Using water drawn from a spring was not unknown.

The waters of “Purton Spa”, as the Salt Hole became known during the 19th century, were sold commercially during the 1800s and into the 1920s. It would seem that the sale of water from the spa only ceased as free medical treatment for all came about with the founding of the NHS after the Second World War.

Local landowners, gentry, and doctors placed no value on the water, believing it to have no curative powers at all. The owner, a Mr Sadler, drained the area and banked up the spa with soil following a winter flood. He is said to have later changed his opinion of the water after contracting a serious illness, and finding immediate benefit upon trying it. It was this that led to the building of a pump room.

By the 1920s the water was delivered by a Mr Neville who first used a pony and trap, the latterly a car to deliver it around the Swindon area. He originally charged 6d a bottle, raising his prices to 8d.

Chemists who analysed the water and its composition found it to be unique. It was rich in phosphate of lime and had no irritant properties. Whether it had real medical powers in the majority of cases it was used is doubtful.

Purton Museum (http://www.purtonmuseum.com/) have many letters from all over the country testifying to the water's power.

Bibliography

“Purton’s Past” by Alec Robbins, published by Purton Historical Society (1991) ISBN 0951714201