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Chalybeate waters, also known as ferruginous waters, are mineral spring waters containing salts of iron.

  Name

The word "chalybeate" is derived from the Latin word for steel, "chalybs", which follows from the Greek word "khalups". Khalups is the singular form of Khalubes or Chalybes, who were mythical people living on Mount Ida in north Asia Minor who had invented iron working.

Ferruginous comes from the Latin word "ferreus" meaning "made of iron," which is derived from the Latin word "ferrum" which means "iron."

  History

Early in the 17th century, chalybeate water was said to have health-giving properties and many people have promoted its qualities. Dudley North, 3rd Baron North discovered the chalybeate spring at Tunbridge Wells in 1606. Dudley North’s physician claimed that the waters contained ‘vitriol’ and the waters of Tunbridge Wells could cure:

"the colic, the melancholy, and the vapours; it made the lean fat, the fat lean; it killed flat worms in the belly, loosened the clammy humours of the body, and dried the over-moist brain."

He also apparently said, in verse:

"These waters youth in age renew

Strength to the weak and sickly add

Give the pale cheek a rosy hue

And cheerful spirits to the sad."

The English physician Thomas Sydenham prescribed chalybeate waters for hysteria^{[citation needed]}.

The Recoaro Spa is on the outskirts of Vicenza, Italy. In 1689, a spring of ferruginous water rich in gas and tasting pleasantly was discovered by Count Lelio Piovene of Vicenza. Local residents called the water from this spring "Saint Anthony's miraculous water" because they claimed it had therapeutic properties.

Dr. Anthony Relhan (ca. 1715–1776), promoted the drinking of mineral waters and particularly water from the chalybeate spring in St Anne's Well Gardens, and published A Short History of Brighthelmstone; with Remarks on its Air, an Analysis of its Waters, Particularly of an uncommon Mineral one, long discovered, though but lately used in 1761.^[1] This led to a substantial increase in public interest in drinking mineral water. The town of Enfield, New Hampshire, even changed its name temporarily to Relhan because of the profound public interest in this form of therapy.^{[2][not in citation given]}

Princess Victoria, later Queen Victoria, drank the waters every day during her stay in Tunbridge Wells in 1834. She and her mother, the Duchess of Kent, would pay a visit to the spring and then enjoy a stroll along the Pantiles. The water contains a significant level of dissolved mineral salts, with iron and manganese contributing to its characteristic flavour.

  Content of the chalybeate waters from Tunbridge Wells

An analysis in 1967 showed it to contain (parts per million):

• Iron(II) carbonate, FeCO₃ 25.3
• Manganese(II) carbonate, MnCO₃ 4.6
• Calcium sulfate, CaSO₄ 60.9
• Magnesium sulfate, MgSO₄ 13.4
• Magnesium chloride, MgCl₂ 7.8
• Sodium chloride, NaCl 57.2
• Potassium chloride, KCl 7.3

  Notable chalybeate springs

Chalybeate springs are found in:

  This rather ornate spring well is in the village of Quarndon. A plaque inside the well has the following description "17th century chalybeate spring well. Once famous spa noted for medicinal waters containing iron. Visited by Daniel Defoe in 1727".

England

• Alexandra Park in Hastings, East Sussex
• Bermondsey Spa, south-east of the Tower of London. Around 1770 Thomas Keyse opened some tea gardens. With the discovery of a chalybeate spring the gardens became known as Bermondsey Spa. About 1784 Keyse received a licence to “provide in his garden musical entertainments” like those in the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. They were varied by occasional exhibitions of fireworks and the price of admission was one shilling.^[3]
• Chalice Well, Glastonbury
• Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
• Chalybeate Kennels near Ingleborough, North Yorkshire
• Dorton Spa in Dorton, Buckinghamshire: said to contain four times the iron of Tunbridge Wells
• Gilsland Spa, Cumbria
• The Gloucester Spa, Gloucester
• Griffydam, Leicestershire
• Hampstead, North London
• Harrogate, North Yorkshire
• Kedleston Hall near Quarndon, Derbyshire
• Kilburn, North London^[4]
• Lees, Greater Manchester
• Nill Well, between Yelling and Papworth Everard, Cambridgeshire
• St. Ann's Well Gardens, Hove, East Sussex
• St. Blaise's Well, Bromley, Kent
• Seend, Wiltshire
• Somersham, Cambridgeshire
• Sandrock Spring, Isle of Wight - discovered 1811; buried in landslide in 1978
• Southwick, Northamptonshire
• Tunbridge Wells, Kent
• Winteringham, North Lincolnshire

Ireland

• Moydow Castle, Longford
• Barry More townland, Hudson's Bay, Roscommon
• Castleconnell, Limerick

Germany

• Pyrmont

Italy

• Recoaro Spa, Vicenza

Poland

• Krynica-Zdrój

Romania

• Toplitz

Russia

• Lipetsk, in central Russia

Scotland

• The Chapeltoun Burn source near Stewarton, East Ayrshire
• Fraserburgh, northeast Scotland
• Hartfell Spa, near Moffat, in the upper reaches of Annandale, Dumfries and Galloway
• Parson's Well, Drumoak, Aberdeenshire
• Peterhead
• Red Well, Whitehills, Aberdeenshire

Spain

• Lanjarón, a village in the Alpujarras

United States

• Nipper Soda Springs, Tulare County, California, California
• Brandywine Springs, Wilmington, Delaware
• Brushton, New York, a village in Franklin County
• Chalybeate Springs in Gadsden, Alabama
• Chalybeate Springs, Jeffersonville, Indiana; Resort and spa, 1800s, destroyed and buried by the Big Four Railroad in 1907
• Chalybeate Spring, Schooley's Mountain, Morris County, NJ; active resort and spa from the 1820s until the 1870s (spring source destroyed by road work in 1945)
• Chalybeate Springs, Kentucky
• Chalybeate spring and Chalybeate Springs Hotel near Bedford Springs in Bedford, Pennsylvania
• Glen Miller Park, Richmond, Indiana
• Licton Springs, Seattle, Washington
• Iron Springs, Manitou Springs, Colorado
• Sharon Springs, a village in Schoharie County, New York^[5]
• Spring Water Park in Williamston, South Carolina
• Sweet Chalybeate Springs, Allegheny County, Virginia
• Tinton Falls, Monmouth County, New Jersey, Still active, but fenced off by the township.

Wales

• Betws Yn Rhos, Conwy
• Llandrindod Wells, central Powys
• Trefriw, Conwy

  Places named for chalybeate springs

Several places throughout the world have taken their name from similar springs, including:

• Chalybeate Springs, Alabama, Lawrence County
• Chalybeate, Mississippi
• Chalybeate Springs, Kentucky
• Chalybeate Springs, Georgia, Meriwether County
• Chalybeate Springs, North Carolina, Harnett County
• Chalybeate Springs, Virginia, Scott County
• Sweet Chalybeate, Alleghany County, Virginia
• Chalybeate Spring Temple, Sharon Springs, New York

  References

Notes

• Bromley British History Online
• http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Bromley
• Kelly's Post Office Directory of Essex, Herts, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey and Sussex, 1867
• Recoaro Spa web site