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The age-old benefits of a relaxing spa-break are once again being increasingly appreciated in the hectic world we live in. The established centres at Bath and Harrogate are bustling with activity, and exotic overseas venues are pulling in the tourists. But how times change. In the nineteenth century there was one place that all those seeking a rest-cure just had to go - Ilkeston in Derbyshire, where the waters advertised as 'the most efficacious in England' would soothe away life's troubles. Local historian Peter Seddon takes a dip into the past.

The lower end of Bath Street, Ilkeston, probably in the 1970s. The building on the right is the now demolished Rutland Hotel, next to which once stood the celebrated 'Ilkeston Bath'

Life getting you down? Aches and pains becoming unbearable? Then have a break in Ilkeston and take the waters - no better rest-cure may be had anywhere in England. And that's an honest fact.

It might not quite ring true today, but just over a century ago the long-demolished Ilkeston Bath adjacent the Rutland Hotel was considered one of the top spa venues in the country. Here is a potted history.

Neither the Rutland Hotel nor Ilkeston Bath exist today. Both once stood adjacent, profitably serving each other's needs, but have now been demolished.

The Rutland Hotel was built in 1820 as a stagecoach inn on the Nottingham to Sheffield route - that particular stagecoach was known as the Speculator.

It proved an apt name for the inn's owner, for the business thrived. And when the railways arrived in the 1840s it flourished beyond expectations, bringing good numbers of outsiders into Ilkeston for the very first time.

And the main attraction they came for was the famous 'Ilkeston Bath', situated at the bottom of Town Street next to the Rutland Hotel.

The presence of natural mineral waters in Ilkeston had first been seriously noted in the early 19th century, and within a decade or so their commercial potential was properly exploited when local entrepreneur Thomas Potter erected the Ilkeston Bath building in 1831.

Guidebooks of the time described Ilkeston as 'a famous health resort, owing to the efficacy of its mineral waters', which were considered 'the most powerful yet discovered in the Kingdom.'

As at other renowned spa resorts like Harrogate and Bath, the waters could be taken internally through drinking or simply enjoyed externally through bathing, and were said to have proven medicinal qualities.

Advertisements for Ilkeston Bath even incorporated an advertising slogan, rather like a modern jingle:

'If you're doubled in pain and thin as a lath, Come at once then and try, the famed Ilkeston Bath.'

And come they did, at least until the novelty wore off. And once the tourist trade had thinned out, Ilkestonians themselves failed to bathe regularly enough to keep the establishment profitable. It was also said that activity at a local pit - the Rutland Colliery no. 4 - disturbed the regular source of clean underground water to the spa. In any event, by 1899 Ilkeston Bath had been closed to the public.

The local powers-that-be were not impressed, for the closure of Ilkeston Bath signalled a decline in trade. Such was the feeling of chagrin towards the end, that someone was moved to pen a poem by way of a forlorn last stand:

                                          "Affliction, we know, is the lot of us all,
                                           From the rich and the great to the poor and the small
                                           How few are exempt from mortality's curse!
                                           And how many there are who make their case worse,
                                           By resorting to means which can only deceive -
                                           While pretending to cure cannot even relieve!

                                           There's a remedy certain - and straight is the path -
                                           You have only to try the famed Ilkeston Bath!

                                           If afflicted with gout or sharp rheumatic pain,
                                           It may leave you sometimes, but soon comes again;
                                           If disease of the spine, or gravel, or stone,
                                           Or your sleep or your appetite from you has flown;
                                           Oh, do not despair - there's many can prove,
                                           These waters have caused all their pains to remove :

                                           If you're doubled with pain, and as thin as a lath, 
                                           Come at once, then, and try the famed Ilkeston Bath!"

Alas, the doggerel proved ineffective. After Ilkeston Bath was demolished, the Rutland Hotel lived on, but it too struggled to survive. Round about the 1970s the premises briefly housed Kristies Nightclub and Crockers Discotheque, but the former salubrious hotel was later demolished to make way for a cut-price supermarket.

Such are the vagaries of progress. All that remains of the grand age of 'Ilkeston Spa' is a street name, for soon after Ilkeston Bath was erected on Town Street, the name was changed to Bath Street.

Bath Street remains Ilkeston's main thoroughfare today - one where sightings of radiant tourists wrapped in fluffy bathrobes are remarkably rare indeed. They have all forsaken Ilkeston for Baden-Baden and Budapest - some people just don't know what's good for them.

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County:  Derbyshire

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