IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Nibbs Terrace, TROWBRIDGE, BA14 6RX

The former factory of John Sawtell & Company, bedding manufacturer. In 1882 John Sawtell set up modern factory adjoining Spa House where he lived. Circa 1895, when he was a bedding and wire mattress manufacturer, Spa House was demolished and the factory extended retaining the spa pump site at the end of a new building. The building has been converted into apartments. Two miles north east of Bradford-on-Avon the village of Holt originally consisted of a settlement around the church and an area around a triangular green called The Ham. The village greatly expanded in the later 20th century. Primarily an agricultural village, it was briefly a spa and there was a woollen cloth mill and factories producing leather, gloves and beds. Now a commuter village with workers travelling to Melksham, Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon.

John Sawtell developed a bed manufacture business from a feather business in the mid-1800s. Some of the buildings are still standing and will be incorporated into a major redevelopment of the industrial site.

Holt (Wiltshire) old fire station, The Midlands, Holt, Wiltshire, has been converted into a house.

The former fire station has been converted into a dwelling. Two miles north east of Bradford-on-Avon the village of Holt originally consisted of a settlement around the church and an area around a triangular green called The Ham. The village greatly expanded in the later 20th century. Primarily an agricultural village, it was briefly a spa and there was a woollen cloth mill and factories producing leather, gloves and beds. Now a commuter village with workers travelling to Melksham, Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon.

On the side of what once was Sawtell's factory is this spa pump a remaining fragment of Holt spa. The mineral spa were used as a cure from 1713. The waters were bottled and sold as far away as London until the early 19th century. There is much detail and images at: http://www.bradfordonavonmuseum.co.uk/archives/3758 The pump is listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1364100 Two miles north east of Bradford-on-Avon the village of Holt originally consisted of a settlement around the church and an area around a triangular green called The Ham. The village greatly expanded in the later 20th century. Primarily an agricultural village, it was briefly a spa and there was a woollen cloth mill and factories producing leather, gloves and beds. Now a commuter village with workers travelling to Melksham, Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon.

On an old and long-occupied site in Holt, this area was found to have mineral waters rising to the surface in the late seventeenth century - long before the tannery or bed factories arrived. This led to a small spa being established and this old pump is a relic of that era. It now stands on the old Sawtell site as it is being redeveloped. Grade II listed.

This pump brought up spa water and was a local feature that drew many to it in the past. The white tablet records that the pump and its surroundings was popular by 1720, which may well have been the time when leather working was starting close by. The pump also has a fair bit of stylish stonework and a Latin inscription: 'Scire potestates aquarum usumque bibendi' - Virgil. A similar text can be found in Bth's Pump Rooms. The spa seems to have lost its powers by the early 1800s and this relic may well have been removed to this place.

The cottage at the end of the row, number 140 The Midlands, is late 18th century and is listed, grade II, with details at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1364099 Two miles north east of Bradford-on-Avon the village of Holt originally consisted of a settlement around the church and an area around a triangular green called The Ham. The village greatly expanded in the later 20th century. Primarily an agricultural village, it was briefly a spa and there was a woollen cloth mill and factories producing leather, gloves and beds. Now a commuter village with workers travelling to Melksham, Trowbridge and Bradford-on-Avon.