East & West Molesey

A Dictionary of Local History

Rowland G. M. Baker, 1972

THE SPA (EM)

In the field off the west side of Esher Road, called "Kemp's Ait" or "Spa Meadow", was a spring whose water was supposed to contain iron and to possess great curative powers. A wooden thatch-roofed building did duty as a pump room, and the spring was much patronized by society, especially the ladies from Hampton Court. In 1761 it was ordered that the churchwardens "do appoint some poor person of this parish to keep the place around the Well clean and neat and to attend with proper Vessels to assist people with the Watter, whose reward is to be only what the people shall be pleased to give them". A pipe is supposed to lead from the spring to Matham Manor House.

A second chalybeate spring was discovered accidentally in 1896 when a well was sunk at Hampton Court station whose water deposited large amounts of iron and other minerals in the storage tank. It was analysed by a local chemist and its properties were found to resemble closely the water from the springs at Tunbridge Wells and Scarborough.