Leamington Spa

In July 1814 'The Royal Pump Room and Baths', designed and built by C.S. Smith of Warwick at a cost of £30,000 were officially opened. The Spa treatment was claimed to cure, or relieve a huge number of disorders, examples being 'stiffness of tendons', 'rigidity of the joints', 'the effects of gout and rheumatism and various paralytic conditions'. The Spa water is a mild laxative which is one reason why the water was drunk. With detailed plaques giving information on the various aspects of "taking the waters", fashionable in Georgian and Victorian England.	Inside the Pump House Museum, small but packed with detailed information about the Spa's. Between May & October patients were "advised" to remain a month to bath 2 or 3 times a week. This plaque commemorates Benjamin Satchwell who discovered the health giving virtues of the waters. http://www.royal-pump-rooms.co.uk/
A unique Victorian ladies diary complete with minute sketches in her own hand. Barely readable to my eyes, it describes "taking a drive", presumable pony & trap?	plaque contains "Rules For Taking The Waters". I suppose nowadays people would be more aware of the profits to be gained by the towns people for these patients to remain a whole month!
River Leam from opposite the Pump House	The first ever Lawn Tennis Club in the world originated here at Leamington Spa. Here is the Trophy won three times by a local player.
A "typical" shop front displaying wares and items from days long past.	Probably this stood on a plinth or brickwork on both sides of the entrance to the towns Police Station. Excellent example of fine work.
Public Gardens opposite Pump House, extremely well looked after and a very pleasant walk on a sunny afternoon. Here we see one of the fountains.	and in the opposite direction, the Pump House itself.
And fountains of a modern design play upon the waters in the park, containing much in the way of wild fowl including swans, ducks and geese.
Quite a surprise to find this in the park, a memorial to the Free Czech Forces who left Leamington Spa to return to their homeland to kill Rudolph Heydrich - the "Fuhrer" of occupied Czechoslovakia. A famous event in itself but still a surprise to find this here. It is situated next to a fountain which has the names of the brave men who undertook this dangerous and fatal mission from which nobody returned. In reprisal for the killing of Heydrich the Nazi's reduced the village of Lidice to rubble and murdered the entire population of this village. Some children did survive but in Germany. All took place in 1942. Such brave Nazi's!!!	See link below and base of page: http://www.auschwitz.dk/Heydrich.htm I also found a CIA declassified file on the full story of Rudolph Heydrichs' assination: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol4no1/html/v04i1a01p_0001.htm Jan Kubis - his dead body
	Parkland scene showing lake and bridge across into residential area of Leamington.
Within the park is a small tropical house containing many asian and south american plants. Orchids, banana plants, ferns and many many cactii. Too new(ish) to be really distinct as yet.	Many other species adorn this relatively new building. Some parts of it are so new, like the "Slate mountain", supposedly a sculpture, have no grown on them as such.
	Back into the town for a stroll about the shops. Usual high street shops but some off the main roads well worth a looking over. All in all, a nice day out. Why all those flags? I had no idea.