BC - RECORDS OF BATH CITY COUNCIL AND BATH & NORTH EAST SOMERSET COUNCIL
- BC/13 - Bath as a Spa, Cultural and Tourist centre: records of Bath City Council and Bath & North East Somerset Council's responsibilities for culture, leisure and tourism
  - BC/13/12 - Records relating to the Thermae Bath Spa
    - BC/13/12/1 - Records relating to the Bath Spa Project (1997-2006)
      - BC/13/12/1/1 - Audio recordings of interviews conducted to aid in the development of displays for the Spa Visitor Centre, Bath

Interview with a woman who recalls her mothers experience of using the Spa Treatment Centre, Bath

Reference Number: BC/13/12/1/1/12
Alternative Reference Number: 0779
Level of Description: Item
Title: Interview with a woman who recalls her mothers experience of using the Spa Treatment Centre, Bath
Date: c.2005
Extent: Extent: 1 minidisc
Description: An audio recording of an interview with an unidentified woman who describes her mother's experiences of using the Spa Treatment Centre for her arthritis.

This interview, along with others, was conducted to aid the development of visitor displays at the Thermae Bath Spa which opened in 2006. Further details of the date and location of the recording have not been captured, and it is not clear who is conducting the interview.

The recording is 00:05:25 long with the interviewers voice coming in at 00:00:02. Below are the extracts of what was said during the interview. Please note this is not a complete transcript as the superfluous conversation in between questions has been removed:

[Interviewer] 'So you ju'st want to go over what happened, how your mother was seen and then directed to the spa?'

[Interviewee] 'I cannot remember exactly when it was my mother developed arthritis. My father died suddenly of a heart attack in 1935 and it was later on after that. I think the doctor felt possibly the shock induced a number of illnesses including she used to get migraines very badly. But she developed arthritis and our doctor, Dr John Bennett, he at that time was the chief doctor who was running the Mineral Water Hospital. But people often went not to be treated at the Mineral Water Hospital as outpatients and what I can realise they went to the Treatment Centre. And at that time the Treatment Centre was in Bath Street. To begin with the entrance was from Stall Street, from the side entrance to the large hotel that was standing there. I think it was probably called the Grand Pump Room Hotel but I would not be certain about that.
Later on a new entrance was made in Bath Street and my mother had various forms of treatment for her arthritis. They included treatment in water. It was in the mineral water treatment and she also had mud pack treatments, a variety of different treatments and probably exercises. I also later on had a treatment there but then it was because I had what was called a bad posture, in other words a humpback. And I went there and was given various exercises to do by what I remember as a rather fierce gentleman but I may be quite mistaken.
At that time one of the two swimming baths at that time there was the Royal Baths which were at the end, the entrance was at the end of Bath Street towards now where the Little Theatre is and the Cross Bath is. And that was a rather nice bath. It was smaller and slightly more upmarket than the Beau Street Baths. It was smaller and I had swimming lessons there, private ones. A lot of people learned to swim there with private lessons. Later on I also went to the Beau Street Baths for swimming and I think that also that then sometimes schools would go to the Beau Street Baths. They would be taken from their school in classes for swimming sessions and so on in the Beau Street Baths.
I can't remember exactly when they closed down. I think it could have been because they were using mineral water and it could have been when the bug developed in the mineral water which has since been completely cured thank goodness’.

[Interviewer] ‘Did you say anything about when you were swimming there? I mean about the kind of smells or the sights or the colour of the water? What was the swimming pool like? I've seen it's been told that it had steps all around one side’.

[Interviewee] ‘Oh yes. The Royal Bath had steps down one side. I think, but I'm not so certain about this, I think the Beau Street Baths didn't have the steps going all down one side just as they have nowadays in the swimming baths. You'd have just like a small step. have just like a small staircase at the deep end and the shallow end for going in. But in the Royal Bath I definitely seem to remember steps, like marble steps going down into the water. I wouldn't guarantee that, as my memory is not of the best’.
Existence and Location of Copies: Digitised MP3 versions are available on Preservica via internal access at Bath Record Office.