The early part of the 20-century was the heyday for medicinal spas such as Bath, Buxton and Harrogate, and Cheltenham was no exception. There were already many independent spas in the town and the council ensured they were in on the act in many ways, such as the Central Spa that formed part of the new Town Hall. Although some medicinal treatments were added by the council at the Montpellier Baths in 1907 and 1915, major changes came in 1919 when all of the ground floor wash baths were replaced with a new suite of medical baths. Further smaller additions were made over the years and most of these treatments were still being offered in the 1930s and after the Second World War.
Medicated water baths
As in the 19th century a patron could request that a variety of salts or other elements be added to the water in their ordinary wash or slipper bath for supposed medical benefit but when the Montpellier Baths first reopened in 1900 only unadulterated fresh water was used.
In December 1901 the Medical Waters & Baths Committee decided that one of the spray wash baths should be converted to a first class brine bath but at the beginning of the new year it was agreed to adapt one of the two sunken clover-leaf baths for this purpose. It is not clear what the adaptations were at this time and whether the sunken bath was still used or whether it was simply boarded over and a normal free-standing wash bath installed; it was certainly the latter by the 1920s and brine baths were still being taken well into the late-1940s. It was said that brine exercised a ‘stimulating action’ of the surface of the skin and was employed for chronic rheumatism. Sulphur first appears on the tariff list of 1912 and pine from 1915 and both were still included on the list of charges in 1926. Alkaline baths are also found on the 1926 list.
1907 additions
In December 1906 the Mineral Waters & Baths Committee considered a request from the Medical Committee that an aix douche with massage table and vapour bath be installed at the Montpellier Baths and the borough surveyor was asked to come up with a plan to create two new treatment rooms with a dressing room in between in place of three existing ground floor wash baths. At the same time changes were made to the lounge of the Baths so that it could also be used as a cooling-off room and kept separate from the swimming bath. Members of the Baths Committee made a fact-finding visit to the spa at Bath and on return gave the surveyor the go-ahead. The new rooms were completed by June and the treatments available from July. A proposal to also install radiant light and treatment was approved that same month but rescinded in August; that had to wait a further eight years.
Aix Douche
This treatment was used for a variety of vascular conditions. The attendant or masseur would carry a hose over their shoulder to direct jets of water onto whichever part of the patient’s body they were massaging. The hose can be seen draped over a bracket on the wall of the room in this 1920 photograph.
In 1926 a single treatment would cost 7s 6d while a course of six treatments would cost £2 2s.
Vapour Bath
This appears to have been a wooden cabinet in which a patient sat completely enclosed – with the exception of their head which stuck through a hole in the top of the cabinet – while hot steam was piped into it to cause them to sweat heavily. Curiously, two advertisements for the medical baths in 1924 still show the vapour bath among the available treatments even though it had been removed in the summer of 1921.
The room was then used for other treatments but the tiled floor was not altered; surviving to this day it clearly shows that the cabinet had five sides and stood in this corner of the room.
1915 additions
In late 1914 the Medical Waters & Baths Committee considered whether they should appoint a masseuse or masseur and convert the corner shop and the stores behind to provide medical treatments involving electricity. The borough surveyor was asked to report on the costs of providing radiant light and heat treatment and ionic medication baths but in the event only the former were installed in 1915; the proprietor of the nearby Cambray Spa, Frank Ruck, already provided a variety of electric baths and said he would willingly provide more of these at his premises if demand required it.
Radiant Light and Heat
This was used to treat neuritis (inflammation of one or more nerves), lumbago, sciatica, rheumatism and muscular stiffness and was often used in conjunction with massage. With only radiant light and heat to be installed there was no need to make use of the shop and so the decision was made to board over the remaining sunken clover-leaf shaped bath and to use the room for a new purpose.
The first apparatus was a fairly simple series of heating or lighting filaments in front of mirrored panels that clipped around an existing bed. The dark Devonshire marble slabs seen here date from the 1900 refurbishment of the Baths.
A Nurse Addis was engaged to deliver the new treatment and recommended that in addition to the full-length bed more portable apparatus – sometimes referred to as radio-local treatment – be obtained to administer light or heat more directly to specific limbs. The Committee accepted her advice and two small units were purchased which could be used in the dressing room next to the full-length bed.
Nurse Addis, who is seen in these photographs, remained employed at the Baths until October 1920 when she resigned due to her forthcoming marriage; although she was replaced on a full-time basis by Sister Godecharle she was sufficiently highly regarded that the Spa Medical Committee asked if she would consider returning to work on a part-time basis but she declined.
When the ground floor was altered in 1919 the full body apparatus was moved to a new room created by dividing the previous family swimming bath room into five rooms and a corridor (again, boarding over that bath). Two years later it was replaced by a reconditioned Holmquist Electric Light Bath purchased for £40 following an inspection in London by a member of the Spa Medical Committee. This was a fixed cabinet arrangement which could be completely closed except for an opening for the head. In 1923 the white bulbs were replaced with a series of red, violet and blue bulbs.
In 1926 a single full body treatment cost 8s 6d while a course of four treatments cost £1 10s 6d. A local treatment cost 5s 6d.
1919 additions
At the beginning of 1918 the Spa Medical Advisory Committee asked the borough surveyor to draw up a scheme to add peat and alkaline baths together with a Vichy douche apparatus to the current medical offering at the Baths. These would have been relatively minor alterations. Within a few months the idea that the town would benefit from a much more enhanced medical offering took hold and advice was sought from Dr Malcolm King in London who made recommendations. In August the Committee’s Dr Kirkland went on a fact-finding mission with the borough surveyor and in October members of the Committee visited Shanks & Co, the likely suppliers of the majority of the equipment that would be required.
In January 1919 the Town Improvement Committee approved the complete overhaul of the ground floor of the Baths to provide a complete suite of medical baths – although this no longer included peat and alkaline baths – and the next month the borough surveyor was asked to plan the necessary structural alterations. At the same time Shanks & Co was awarded the contract to provide and install the medical baths and fittings although the actual contract was not signed and agreed until 26 May for a sum of £1581 16s. Extras were added while work was being undertaken resulting in a final bill of £1740 18s 11d. These sums excluded the structural alterations necessary to the building, which included a small first floor extension for wash baths; in total the council borrowed almost £3,000 from the Local Government Board.
The Baths closed on 27 April to enable the renovations which council minutes recorded should take three weeks although a letter of complaint received in October – when the Baths were still closed – makes it clear that the good folk of Cheltenham had been under the impression the work would last between four-to-six weeks. Either way, this seems to have been a ridiculously short timescale for such a large project. Things did not run smoothly: in June someone was deputed to ‘stir up those responsible’ while in September Shanks reported a further delay due to difficulties obtaining a small motor.
The work was inspected by the Spa Medical Committee on 7 October and a week later they advised that all the electric equipment should be fully tested ahead of the expected opening in a further fortnight. In the event the medical baths did not open until 24 November – without an official formal opening – no doubt due in part to the interference of the Town Improvement Committee in respect of paraffin wax baths (see below).
Vichy Douche
This was used to treat goutiness, toxaemia (blood poisoning from local bacterial infections), obesity, arthritis, and fibrositis (now fibromyalgia). The patient would lie on the table while water was continually sprayed on them from above. The temperature and pressure of the water could be varied as required to stimulate the skin although an attendant would often massage the patient at the same time. A second Vichy douche replaced the vapour bath in 1921.
In 1926 a single treatment cost 7s 6d while a course of six treatments cost £2 2s.
Originally called the Vichy douche it was renamed the Cheltenham massage douche in October 1943 because of the policy of collaboration with Nazi Germany held by Vichy France during the Second World War.
Scotch Douche
The Aix, Vichy and Scotch douches were grouped together in the same room with a dressing room adjoining. It is clear from photographs that this room remained unchanged until the medical baths closed in the 1950s. The Scotch douche differed from the other douches as alternate hot and cold water jets are directed horizontally from a distance of from six to eight feet against the part of the body being treated.
In 1926 a single treatment cost 3s 6d while a course of six treatments cost 18s.
Needle Bath and Spinal Douche
Photographs of the douche room throughout the 1920s show a fourth piece of equipment that is, somewhat curiously, neither labelled nor mentioned. This was the needle bath.
Whereas the Scotch douche fired a single, considerable horizontal jet of water at a patient from a distance, the needle bath was much more gentle, directing many small jets of either hot or cold water at closer range over the body of the standing patient. An additional spray from above could also be employed. It was also possible to only use the central column of the frame so that water was directly focused on someone’s spine. A second needle bath replaced the vapour bath in 1921.
In 1926 a single 10-minute treatment of either full needle bath or spinal douche would cost 3s 6d while a course of six treatments would cost 18s.
Contrast Bath
This was used to treat vaso-motor (blood vessel) affections, oedema, swelling of the feet, Raynaud’s Disease and chilblains. A patient would sit on the stool – which had the ability to swivel – and place their foot in the trough containing warm water for 30 seconds before switching to the cold water trough for 15 seconds and repeat this process repeatedly. The difference in water temperature between the two troughs was 70-80 degrees Fahrenheit.
In 1926 a single treatment cost 3s while a course of four treatments cost 10s 6d.
Whirlpool Aeration
This was used to treat neurasthenia (mental exhaustion due to stress or mental fatigue), nervous disposition, insomnia, and shell shock during and post-First World War. Two variations were available, limb or plunge; the former, used for arms, is shown on the left of the photo while the plunge is shown on the right (the steps to reach it are just visible).
The motor needed to operate these baths proved to be too noisy to remain in the room and it was swiftly moved to the cellars next to the calorifiers.
A guide to Cheltenham Spa produced by the Chamber of Commerce in the late-1920s described these facilities as follows: ‘An electric motor drives air through perforated pipes at the bottom of the bath at a rate varying from just sufficient to cause a bubbling effect of the water to a whirlpool effect at full pressure. When simple aeration at low pressure is employed the effect is pleasing and soothing; the surface being as it were gently stroked by the continuous stream of air bubbles impinging against the surface of the skin’.
In 1926 a single treatment cost 4s (limb) or 6s (plunge). A course of six limb treatments or four plunge treatments both cost £1 1s. A separate whirlpool bath is listed in guidebooks and price lists and a floor plan from the 1940s confirms that there were separate rooms for each. It is assumed that this was a standard slipper bath in which a patient could fully recline.
Sedative Pool
This clover-leaf shaped bath was used to treat sleeplessness, arterio-sclerosis, chronic rheumatism, and – strangely – chronic alcoholism. It was originally installed in 1900 as an immersive wash bath but had been boarded over in 1915 to be used as the radiant light and heat room. You would enter it at the narrow end via several steps then walk to the curved end where there were two seats (which can just be seen); these were of different heights to determine just how deeply you were immersed. The water was also aerated so it would have been rather like sitting in a mild hot tub!
In 1926 a single treatment cost 3s while a course of six treatments cost 15s.
Plombieres
These were used to treat colitis and other intestinal disorders and were forms of colonic irrigation. Three variants of plombieres were available: the first, plain, was administered while lying on a bed; the second, immersion, was administered while lying in a wash bath; and the third was also immersion but which included a water-based massage called a Tivoli douche. This room was previously a combined bath and dressing room and the Devonshire marble slab walls date from the 1900 refurbishment.
In 1926 a single treatment of plain or immersion plombiere cost 6s while a course of four cost £1 1s. A single treatment of immersion plombiere with Tivoli douche cost 7s 6d while a course of four cost £1 7s 6d.
Paraffin Wax
This was used to treat lumbago, myositis (weak/painful muscles), fibrositis (now called fibromyalgia), stiff joints, and adhesion in wounds. These baths would contain paraffin wax which, when melted, enabled limbs to be exposed to relatively high temperatures without discomfort.
The original list of treatments agreed for the new suite of medical baths included one paraffin wax bath but it is seems as if this had actually not been part of the original specification of 3 January 1919 as following an inspection by the Town Improvement Committee in early October an addition is made to the original contract for the purchase of ‘two cast iron paraffin wax baths, white porcelain enamelled inside and painted outside, teakwood top, mounted on four cast iron pillars, each having a discharge tap’. They were cutting things fine – this is a little over one month before the reopening of the Baths.
This photo clearly shows these two baths, one for use on arms and one on a raised platform for use on legs. Sadly most of the invoices from the installation are lost but from those that do survive we know that the small drip sink (just visible to the right of the bed in the photo) was item G3015 in Shanks G Catalogue of 1914 and cost, with taps and outlet pipe, £3 15s.
This room was previously a dressing room and much of it dates from 1900. To the right of the sink is a small steam radiator and to the right of that, on an angle, a fireplace that held a gas fire. At the very extreme right of the photo you can see the door that took you into the Sedative Pool.
The photograph on the left comes from a 1924 advertisement. The staff member administering the treatment to a young boy is likely to be Miss Ethel Silver who was appointed as assistant masseuse in October 1923. She was promoted to sister-in-charge of the Baths just five weeks later following the resignation of Sister Godcharle.
In 1926 a single treatment cost 7s while a course of four treatments cost £1 5s.
Nauheim Bath
There were two of these on the premises, apparently sunk into the floor rather than free standing, and they were used to treat heart conditions. The patient got into a bath of temperature around 90 degrees Fahrenheit into which carbon dioxide gas was introduced. This created a film of tiny bubbles to form all over the patient’s skin which stimulated the blood vessels. It has been described as like sitting in a bath of champagne.
In 1926 a single treatment cost 7s 6d while a course of five treatments cost £1 15s.
Massage and exercise
Massage could be taken either on its own or after other treatments. In 1926 the charges for massage only were 5s 6d for 20 minutes, 7s for 30 minutes, 9s 6d for 45 minutes and 12s for an hour; after other treatments it was 3s 6d for 15 minutes, 4s for 20 minutes and 5s for 30 minutes.
Some form of exercise classes must have been offered during this period as the Spa Medical Committee minutes of October 1920 record a recommendation that ‘the exercise room next to one of the Nauheim baths should be converted into a dressing room’. As the room is never referred to again and no charges are found for exercise in the 1926 price list it seems more likely than not this was carried out although such recommendations are occasionally revealed – sometimes even decades later – not to have been taken up.
1920s additions
Despite the ground floor being referred to as the Medical Baths since the 1919 changes it was not until 1923 that it was officially named the Spa Medical Baths. A few additional treatments were added after this time.
Liver Pack
There are no details about this process other than that it was introduced at the Baths in 1924. It seems likely that this was a holistic treatment based on that created by the American Edgar Crayce as a way of detoxing a patient’s liver. They would lie on a bed or table and a small amount of wadding on which castor oil had been applied would be placed over the area of the liver. It would then be heated in some way.
In 1926 a single treatment cost 4s while a course of six treatments cost £1 1s.
Faradism and Galvanism
These were introduced in 1924 although galvanism had been employed here 80 years previously. They were both a form of massage using electrical batteries and both claimed similar therapeutic effects such as increasing or decreasing muscle tone depending on how it was used. Faradism used AC or alternating current while galvanism used DC or direct current. Quite how either were used at the Baths is unknown.
In 1926 a single treatment lasting 10 minutes cost 5s while 20 minutes cost 5s 6d.
Ultra Violet/Artificial Sunlight and Infra-red
This was installed in 1926 and was used to help rejuvenate during convalescence following measles, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, and other respiratory diseases together with lumbago, neuritis, arthritis, and general disability.
In 1926 a 10-minute treatment cost 5s while a 20-minute treatment cost 7s 6d.
Schnee Four Cell
This was installed in 1926 for treating general rheumatic conditions and painful joints. A patient would sit with each limb resting in its own individual bath or cell with each bath having its own electrical current. Different baths could receive different levels of current from one another. This was considered a vast improvement on simply attaching electrodes directly to the skin because the water allowed much greater areas of skin to be exposed to electricity.
In 1926 a single treatment cost 5s 6d.
Electrical Vibratory Massage
This was introduced in 1926 aimed at helping rheumatism, sciatica and other muscular pains and would have been similar to the percussive massage guns available today. Massage was either local (one specific part of the body) or general (more wide ranging).
In 1926 a single treatment cost 4s for local and 6s for general.
Cataphoresis (Ionization)
Also introduced in 1926, this was used for cases of rheumatism, gout and other joint or muscular issues. A pad would be impregnated with the necessary drug or drugs and then applied to the part of the body that needed treatment. A weak electric current was then turned on to transfer the drug to ‘diseased tissues lying beneath the skin’ in measured doses’.
In 1926 a 20-minute treatment cost 7s with 30 minutes costing 9s 6d. It was the second most-expensive offering at the Baths; only a full radiant light and heat bath cost more.
1930s additions
Foam Bath
At the end of December 1929 the Town Improvement Committee reported that there was a demand for the Sandor Soapless Foam Bath and this was installed in early 1930 this at a cost of £9 2s. This particular bath was obsolete by 1935 and replaced in December of that year by a Zotofoam Bath at a cost of £20.
(Warwick District Council)
The treatment used an ordinary wash/slipper bath on the bottom of which a gas distributor was placed. Hot water of around 150 degrees Fahrenheit was then added but only enough to cover the distributor and then an ounce of foam extract would be poured into the water. Oxygen, compressed air or even carbonic acid gas would be passed through the distributor which reacted with the extract to create fine bubbles of hot foam. The patient would then enter the bath and be covered with the foam which acted as an insulator and stopped the body’s usual loss of heat causing the patient to sweat.
Foam baths were used to treat rheumatism but the Zotofoam manufacturers also advertised it as a way for a woman to ‘reduce her figure without diet, quickly an inexpensively. There is no other known method of slimming which is so absolutely certain of success and at the same time so entirely safe that even those with weak hearts derive nothing but benefit’. They even claimed you could lose 1-3 pounds of superfluous fat within one hour!
In 1936, a single foam bath cost 4s while a course of four treatments cost 19s; it was also possible to add brine into the bath for which an extra 2s was charged.
Studa
This was introduced in 1933 as a seated alternative to the plain Plombiere at a cost of £55 to install. Over time it became more widely used than the reclining option.
Chiropody
In November 1936 the superintendent recommended that a room should be set aside for chiropody and this was approved by the Medical Advisory Committee the following month with an expenditure of £50 to provide the necessary equipment. In February 1937 a ‘municipal foot clinic’ was opened on Wednesday evenings from 6.30 pm with charges of 3s 6d, 5s or 7s 6d depending on the length and nature of treatment required. This was for a three-month trial period.
In April the clinic’s hours were extended by 60 minutes due to demand and more equipment had to be purchased in May. In the first 11 months of the clinic 475 people received treatment and within a few years chiropody and massage were given more frequently than all the other treatments combined.
Na-Ki-Dal Therapy
The exact nature of this remains elusive although it was used to help in cases of rheumatism. In November 1938, on the advice of the Medical Advisory Committee, the Town Improvement Committee agree to provide both Emanotherapy and Na-Ki-Dal (sometimes written as one word) therapy but only if they were prescribed by a doctor and not advertised as being available. The superintendent was charged to look into the hire of Emanotherapy equipment and to purchase Na-Ki-Dal powder. This suggests it was may have been a medicated water bath – rather like the brine bath – although it was also possible to have an aerated Na-Ki-Dal bath so it may have had similarities with the whirlpool aeration or even the foam bath.
It doesn’t appear as if Na-Ki-Dal was available until the following summer as the charges for the treatment were not set until July 1939. A single treatment cost 4s while a course of four cost 14s; an aerated Na-Ki-Dal bath cost 5s. Na-Ki-Dal may have been a brand name (as with Zotofoam).
Radioactive treatments
It will seem strange to us now, but in the 1920s and 1930s some of the medical treatments offered at the Spa Medical Baths – and at other establishments – involved the use of radioactive material.
An advertisement of February 1924 includes reference to, as the final entry of a fairly long list of available cures, the ‘world-renowned PISTANY RADIO ACTIVE MUD BATH, now in great demand for the treatment of RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS’. Were people actually lying in a bath of radioactive mud?
Possibly. There were firms that shipped the mud over for just that purpose but this would have been very messy to administer in the confines of the relatively small bathrooms. There is never any mention – unlike tanks for water and brine – of suitable storage facilities for the sufficient quantities that might be needed and the advertisements soon replace the words ‘mud bath’ with ‘mud treatment’. It seems more likely, then, that they were using Pistany Mud Compresses.
Storage would have been simple and they could be purchased for just 25s each. These compresses were made of linen and filled with radioactive mud from Pistany Wells in the Czech Republic. The compress could then be dipped in hot water so that it could be moulded to whatever part of the body needed treating.
There are no mentions of the Pistany treatment before 1924 and it isn’t included on the 1926 price list, so it may have been a fairly short-lived offering. Not, however, quite as short lived as the rather more concerning dalliance with Emanotherapy just over a decade later.
The minutes of the Town Improvement Committee meeting of 16 December 1938 reveal that the Superintendent of the Baths had communicated with the proprietors (sadly unnamed) of an Emano-Therapy apparatus and provisionally arranged the loan of equipment to the Corporation so that it would be possible to administer a radioactive foam bath and radioactive heating pads. As each treatment required a fee of 1s to be paid to the owners of the apparatus, the charges to the public were set at 6s and 4s 6d respectively.
The heating pads operated in a similar way to the Pistany compresses and were probably relatively safe, but lying in a foam bath with water impregnated to some extent with radioactive material doesn’t instantly sound sensible. However, even that sounds safer than the third, most concerning element of Emanotherapy.
The same committee minutes note that the Superintendent had also arranged with the proprietors to hire an Emanator and to charge threepence for a glass of water (twopence of which went to the company). The Spa Medical Baths were charging patients to drink radioactive water!
The main supplier of Emanators at this time was the Radium Vita Company and you could even purchase the model shown here (from 1936) for use in the home, to be used three times a day without any medical supervision for the princely sum of £4 and ten shillings.
The Emanator contained a small cage of radium pellets which would cause cold water poured into it to become radioactive. Originally the equipment hired by the Superintendent was supposed to be used for a six-month trial before making a decision on whether to retain it and add the treatment to the permanent list; yet the equipment was returned to the company just four months later with no reason minuted for cutting the trial short.
Recent research on the above model has shown that the water in the Radium Vita Emanator would have been well above the levels of radioactivity permitted at the time by the Ministry of Health. You can read more about the use of the Emanator at the excellent online Museum of Radium.
Calorifers
As part of the 1919 renovations a new room – really a partially enclosed pit partly abutting the laundry – was built below ground level directly underneath the renovated Aix Douche treatment room to hold a large calorifier – an indirect-fired water heater – and feed water heater to provide hot water to the new suite of medical baths (the wash baths on the first floor had a separate supply). According to Town Improvement Committee minutes, an additional calorifier was installed in a year later as the previously-installed equipment had proved insufficient to produce the amount of hot water needed. All were supplied by Royles Limited of Irlam, Manchester.
These three pieces of equipment, along with many of Royles’ Syphonia steam traps, are still in situ beneath what is now the stage of the green room although obviously unused for well over 70 years. The larger calorifier and water feed heater were installed during the pit’s construction before the floor above was replaced to complete work on the new Aix Douche room.
The only direct access to the pit was – and still is – via a trap door, now in one of the theatre’s rehearsal rooms but previously within the drying room of the laundry. As such, it is clear that this smaller, vertical calorifier was the one installed in 1920 as this is slim enough to fit down the trap door.
This type of calorifier was specifically designed for use with waters liable to deposit scale of lime or salt. The writing on the square section towards the bottom reads ‘cleaning door’. Connected to the calorifier to its right (the large black cylinder) is the feed water heated installed in 1919.
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