This is a lovely view of the New Bath Hotel, one of Matlock Bath's oldest hotels and where people came for the medicinal properties of the water. It is possible the photograph dates from the 1930's. Certainly, there's no sign of an ash tree on Clifton Road that the webmistress used to climb in the 1950's. There are other clues. For example, Hartle's at the bottom of Clifton Road was still in existence. On the right of the photograph, above Holy Trinity Church, the remains of the Royal Hotel can be seen. This had been destroyed by fire. Part of the hotel remained, as shown, but the building became very dilapidated.

Some of the New Bath's gardens can also be seen. They grew their own vegetables in the plot next to Clifton Road.

In 1852 the hotel was described as follows:

"The NEW BATH HOTEL, pleasantly situated at the South end of the Tufa Terrace, owed its existence to the second hot spring, that was discovered some years after the Old Bath. It has been enlarged at various periods, and now forms three sides of a quadrangle, and is a large and commodious establishment, with beautiful grounds^[1]".

Just over fifty years later, Benjamin Bryan comments on the hotel and its bath:

"The "New Bath" is situate within the area of the Hotel to which it has given its name. This hotel is finely placed, has been thoroughly modernised, is luxuriously finished, and admirably managed. The bath, however, is very old fashioned. It is built of heavy masonry, with a low arched roof, almost in the foundations of the western wing; but although it has all the advantages of constant current, even temperature, and curative properties to be found elsewhere, it is not much used by visitors^[2]".

Names of various people who owned or managed the hotel in earlier times:^[3]

George Saxton and his son George Withers Saxton (they advertised from at least 1823 until 1855, and are known to have been there from at least 1797^[4])
Miss Ivatt & Mrs. Jordan (their names appeared from 1857 to 1876)
Thomas Tyack^[5]

By 1899 the hotel was under new management^[6]. At the beginning of the twentieth century the New Bath Hotel Co. Ltd. were listed as proprietors^[7] and Bertram Clulow was the manager in 1901.^[8]

References (coloured links are to transcripts elsewhere on this web site):

^[1] Gazetteer and General Directory of Sheffield, and all the Townships, Parishes and Villages Within the Distance of Twenty Miles Round Sheffield by William White, published Sheffield, 1852, p.543
^[2] Benjamin Bryan, p206 - information about this book is elsewhere on this site
^[3] Nineteenth Century Trade Directories - transcripts are on this website
^[4] "The Derby Mercury", Wednesday, October 13, 1847. Also see Derby Road, Woodland House, the Saxton's final home
^[5] There's an advert, dated 1888, for Thomas Tyack's New Bath Hotel. Tyack went on to run the Royal Hotel for a time before moving away
^[6] Kelly's 1899 Directory for Matlock Bath
^[7] Kelly's 1908 Directory for Matlock Bath
^[8] Transcript of 1901 Census of Matlock Bath

There is more on site information about
Water Cures
Matlock & Matlock Bath Guides - the New Bath featured in many nineteenth century guides