Lot 95

Lot 95

A touching family portrait that was a holiday wish to family or friends. The handwritten note on the back reads, “A Happy Xmas to you all with Gretta’s love, 1892. We are assuming Gretta is in the custom cart that was designed for someone with a disability, considering this is connected to the Woodhall Spa area. The woman next to her in the great hat appears to be her sister and a gentleman in front gently tends to the donkey pulling the cart. According to Wikipedia, “Woodhall Spa came about by accident in 1811 after John Parkinson of Old Bolingbroke made several attempts to find coal. After spending several thousand pounds and sinking a shaft over 1,000 feet deep, the enterprise was abandoned on account of the now rising spring. The spring flows daily through soft spongy rock at a depth of 520 feet.
About 1834, the then Lord of the Manor, Thomas Hotchkin, ascertained by analysis that the water at Woodhall was valuable, being an iodine and bromine containing mineral spring. He spent nearly £30,000 sinking a well and erecting the Spa Baths, as well as building the Victoria Hotel. A description from 1919 of the therapeutic benefits patrons might expect to enjoy after ‘taking the waters’ ran as follows:
The water is used both internally and externally and has been of the greatest efficacy in arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteo-arthritis, articular and muscular rheumatism, gout (especially of joints), neuritis, sciatica and nervous complaints, glandular swellings, catarrh, high arterial tensions, skin diseases, sterility, fibroid tumours and inflammatory diseases of women, as well as in a variety of other complaints, and it can be obtained in a bottled form direct from the Spa or through any chemist.
The Victoria Hotel burned down on Easter Day, 4 April 1920, when an electrical fault in the boiler room spread to the linen room above.” The image is in very good condition with nice tones and contrast. There is a bump on the top left corner as seen. By Carlton & Sons, Horncastle and Woodhall Spa.