Quiz Part 2

Thank you to everyone who took part in the quiz. Previously when I have done a quiz maybe five or six people have give the correct answer, but this time there was only one.

The winning entry was given by Jim at Parnassus  whom I congratulate, as this was by no means an easy quiz.
Barbara at Coastal Ripples also deserves a mention even though her idea that it was a public bath house was incorrect. 
Tenbury Wells is a Spa town, and this attractive building was designed to house their Pump Room and Spa.

Following the discovery of saline springs in 1839 at Tenbury Wells this unusual little building, given the curious architectural description of 'Chinese Gothic', was designed and built in 1862 to hold a Pump Room and Spa. The Spa was aimed at attracting the 'Middle to Working Classes' unlike most other Spa towns and cities such as Bath, Royal Leamington Spa, Royal Tunbridge Wells, or Buxton, whose appeal was to Royalty, and the wealthy more fashionable end of the market. 

James Cranston of Birmingham was given a contract to design the new Spa building with a Mr. Smith of Tenbury Wells doing the building. Cranston was already well known in the town as he had previously designed a Round Market, a Corn Exchange and a National School.

He got the idea for the design from some greenhouses that he was designing at Homer, near Hereford. In Tenbury Spa he replaced glass panels with those of sheet steel, which was then erected using a pre-fabricated principle being one of the first in the country. 

This part of the building held one of two large halls with a recess where a handsome mineral water fountain was placed to enable visitors to "imbibe the waters". 

Whereas the hall on the other side of this entrance doorway housed the segregated baths for the men and women. There were consulting rooms to enable rheumatic and arthritic visitors to discuss their ailments with the spa's doctor, and also an attendants cottage.  

The small windows on the right side are high in order to provide privacy to the bathers.

The pump room itself was in this octagonal tower. The well was 58ft from the surface and produced mineral water at the rate of 20 gallons per hour. The smell was said to be pungent and reminiscent of a gun when it is discharged!

Click here and take a walk around the inside of the building, now home to Tenbury Wells Town Council.

There has been a crossing over the River Teme into Tenbury since the 13th century, but this historic bridge is known to have been rebuilt by Thomas Telford following flood damage in 1795. The bridge is now a National Heritage, Grade 1, listed monument. The middle of the River Teme forms a dividing border between two counties - Worcestershire and Shropshire. 


Tenbury Wells itself is a quiet country market town, but in the 16th century it was situated on one of the main highways from London to the North of the country. Stagecoaches would rest at one of several coaching inns in and around Tenbury to facilitate a change of horses or an overnight stop. 

 The town lies in an area renown for its orchards, with it's apple trees being a prime target for the parasitic mistletoe plant. Mistletoe lives off the fruit trees nutrients and water which although it weakens the trees, it does not harm them. 

Due to the amount of mistletoe growing in the area, Tenbury has now become a national institution for its Annual Mistletoe and Holly auction which has been held there for the past 160 years.  

Merchants along with interested people flock to the town to both buy and watch this quaint festive auction taking place at the beginning of December in time for the Christmas season.

Although this delightful small market building appears to look round it is actually oval in shape. This building was also designed by the Spa's architect, James Cranston. 

It was a Sunday when we visited and all was quiet inside this quaint market, but a market is still held here three times a week. 

Queen Victoria referred to Tenbury as "my little town in the orchard".