Pauntley Spa

The hard and impervious nature of the Triassic New Red Sandstone on which Pauntley parish lies produces water from joints and fissures in the rock.  As a result, there are numerous springs and wells in the parish, which in the past contributed to the marshy nature of the land, particularly in the more hilly western part.  Most of the houses in this area of the county had their own wells up until earlier this century, some of which, particularly those in parts of Brand Green and Pool Hill, were very deep.  Brand Green had a communal well 42 metres (140 feet) deep (Bick 1992, 11).  The deepest well in Pool Hill, at Walden Villa, was 20 metres (65ft) deep and also supplied water to Pauntley school during the 19th and early 20th century.

There was also at one time a spa in Pauntley, rising from a spring on the banks of the Leadon, which was evidently a purging spa: Samuel Rudder in 1779 describes it as being ‘…of strong brackish taste, and very strong purging quality….and flocks of pigeons resort thereto to eat the salt made by evaporation from the water.’ (Rudder 1779, 597).  The spa never became fashionable; no buildings were attached to it and the spring has now virtually dried up.  The only evidence today is an almost inaccessible muddy area among the coppice at the bottom of a steep bank close to the River Leadon.

References:

Bick, D. 1992: Old Newent and District.  Newent: The Pound House

Rudder, S. 1779:  A New History of Gloucestershire.  Cirencester: Samuel Rudder