The town council remained surprisingly keen to revive the fortunes of the Cheltenham Salts despite the poor financial results it had made in recent years for the Montpellier Gardens Company and the machinery remained in situ doing nothing more than gathering dust while the rest of the building was renovated. At the reopening ceremony in September 1900 the chairman of the Baths & Recreation Ground Committee, Cllr Lenthall, made a speech in which he predicted further development at the baths and that this would include the manufacture of Cheltenham Salts, ‘an important feature in years gone by, and one which, with new machinery, might be resuscitated’. This, according to the Cheltenham Examiner, resulted in a cry of ‘Hear, hear!’
In February 1901 Cllr Lenthall set up a sub-committee which held two meetings in quick succession. The first seems to have discussed very little, the minutes simply recording their resolution ‘to recommend that the necessary fittings be provided and arrangements made for dispensing mineral water at the Montpellier Baths, Montpellier Spa, Pittville Pump Room, and Essex Lodge’ in Pittville Park. The second meeting was clearly more detailed and involved a presentation by the manager of Messrs Nathaniel Smith & Co, a Mr Mansbridge, who had been invited to ‘afford the sub-committee of his experience’.
Mr Mansbridge produced one of the original bottles in which the salts were retailed, bearing the original labels, and the four resolutions were passed for recommendation to the main Baths & Recreations Ground Committee. These were:
- that the old shape of bottle for the sales with original labels be adhered to;
- that if proper arrangements can be made the water be also bottled in suitable bottles for retail and exportation;
- that the borough surveyor be instructed to have the evaporating apparatus at the Montpellier Baths restored; and
- that the salts be also manufactured in a granular effervescent form to be retailed in a different kind of bottle to that in which the plain salts are contained.
The Committee agreed with all four resolutions and decided that they would recommend to the full council that a special Mineral Waters Committee be formed to see this work through. The council approved and a Dr Garrett accepted an invitation to provide his expertise alongside the councillors appointed to the committee. In April, the committee instructed the borough surveyor to come up with a plan and estimate for a new factory close to Barrett’s Mill in Sandford Park for the ‘evaporating, aerating and bottling the waters’. The idea of resuming production of salts at Montpellier Baths appears to have been jettisoned in favour of a facility to handle everything on a new site.
This proposed new factory is never referred to again in council minutes; one can only assume that the estimate provided by the borough surveyor was considered too expensive. There is a further reference to the possible updating of the evaporating apparatus which is scotched almost immediately.
A little under 18 months later, in September 1902, a Mr Cronheim negotiated with the council to enter an agreement for a six-month option to acquire from them the sole and exclusive right to use all trademarks, names, designs, and bottles in any way appertaining to the Cheltenham Mineral Waters, Cheltenham Waters, and Cheltenham Salts. He would even be permitted to use the borough arms and motto. This also came to nothing and there are no further specific references to salts in any council minutes.
It’s not known when the evaporating apparatus, still present in 1901, was removed. There is, however, an intriguing reference in the minutes of the Mineral Waters Committee of 17 July 1903 to the capping of a well and the removal for increased coal storage of ‘an old engine and pumps’. With Mr Cronheim’s arrangement falling through in late 1902 and the council having abandoned any idea of resuming production themselves, it seems quite probable that this minute marks the final end of the salt works.