03 – Wells House

A Blue Plaque commemorating the second hydropathic establishment in the Ilkley area to open was unveiled by Cllr Anne Hawksworth, June 24th 2005.

Wells House was built in 1854-56 by The Ilkley Wells House Hydropathic Company, a consortium of Bradford businessmen led by Benjamin Briggs Popplewell.  The success of the first hydropathic establishment at Ben Rhydding, built in 1843–4, treating well-off people suffering from rheumatic and arthritic aches and pains with immersion in hot and cold baths exploiting the supposed health-giving properties of the town's waters led to others wishing to profiteer.

Benjamin Briggs Popplewell was born in Guiseley on 14 Sep 1805 and went to Bradford as an apprentice to spirit merchant, Mr Wells in Westgate.  He became a partner and when Mr Wells retired took over sole ownership.  His business as wine and spirit merchant flourished and by 1851 had acquired land and property around Ilkley taking up residence at Beacon Hill in Langbar.  As well as being a director of The Ilkley Wells House Hydropathic Company, Benjamin Brigg was also a director of Harris Bank (acquired by Bradford Old Bank Limited in 1864.  They had a Branch in Ilkley which became Barclays Bank at 9 Brook Street), the Charity Hospital (see Grove House Blue Plaque 6) and Ilkley Gas Company.  When he died at Beacon Hill on 4 Jun 1871 his estate was valued at £120,000 (Circa £20m today). Benjamin Briggs Popplewell was buried at Bolton Abbey and his wife and son had a stained-glass memorial window installed in the west end of Ilkley Parish Church.

The site was purchased from the Lord of the Manor, Mr Middleton.  It included 4 Cottages, to be demolished, that had been previously converted from a small, worsted mill run by Robert Atkinson in 1838.  Robert lived in one of the cottages and The Wells House stables were built here.  The main Hydro and gardens were built broadly on two fields that had been occupied by Elizabeth Hodgson whose husband, Thomas, was a farmer.  The Hodgsons’ also lived in one of the cottages.

The architect was Cuthbert Broderic who undertook the Ilkley commission concurrently with his famous work, Leeds Town Hall.  Brodrick's biographer Derek Linstrum described it as a ‘miniature Blenheim Palace’.  The gardens were landscaped by Joshua Major, best known for his earlier work on the Peel Park in Salford and Queens Park and Philips Park in Manchester.  Wells House is the only building by Brodrick known to have been surrounded by a designed landscape.  The total cost was in the region o £30,000 and it was opened on May 28^th 1856.

Ben Rhydding and Wells House hydros were very similar except in architecture.  They had similar facilities bowling alleys, a skating rink, facilities for tennis, badminton, and croquet, targeted the same clientele and charged similar fees. Fees varied from season to season, but an average figure was £3.13.6 weekly for patients and £3.0.0 for visitors at both establishments.

The most famous visitor to the Wells House Hydro was the naturalist Charles Darwin, who stayed with his family in October 1859 staying the North House part of Wells Terrace – See Blue Plaque 16.  He undertook the "water cure" as well as walks on the Moor. Due to the unusually early winter, his daughter Henrietta described their stay as ‘a time of frozen misery’.  The family left Ilkley on 24 November, the day of publication of his work On the Origin of Species.  Darwin finally left for London on 7 December, a stay of almost nine weeks.

The company was not, however, able to provide a doctor of Ben Rhydding Hydro’s Dr. Macleod’s standing.  The physician was Dr. Rischanek, who had been at Ben Rhydding, however in 1858 he was replaced by Dr Edmund Smith, who remained in charge until his death in 1864 (prior to death Dr Smith helped set up Troutbeck in 1863).  Dr Rischanek, who additionally was one of the first directors of Ilkley Waterworks Company set up after the 1852 Act for supplying the inhabitants of the township of Ilkley with water was passed, remained in Ilkley for any years treating patients privately.  On Smith’s death a Dr. Harrison took over and later still Dr Scott.

In 1873 John Dobson, a local Ilkley Gentlemen gave a talk about Ilkley and said, ‘But by far the most splendid development of the 1850’s was hydropathic ‘Wells House’, a large square building of three storeys around a courtyard with a small tower set at each corner.  Opened in 1856, it displays many popular features of the period.  Heavy rusticated and vermiculated stonework on the ground floor gives way to smoothly dressed stone above and solid quoins contracts with the delicate floral carvings below the windows.  The arched central doorway in elaborately dressed stonework of the ground floor is particularly worth of note’.

Advertising for Hydropathy was country wide from Durham down to Devon.

Unfortunately during the 1880s, hydrotherapy began to decline as the benefits of the treatment were discredited. The building subsequently found a new use as a hotel for the next seventy years; this featured a Winter Gardens with sprung dance-floor, raised bandstand, and a 3-span roof supported by decorative arched cast-iron trusses built on top of the terrace.  Like many ex-Hydros and hotels only short adverts were placed in the newspapers.  When Jenny Gertrude Fender took over the License in 1907 there was only a short sentence in the Yorkshire Post that advertised Under new management.  For tariff apply to Manageress!!  In 1909 they again had only a short advert in the Newcastle Chronicle -Reduced Terms for Winter Residence – Free Golf.

In 1939 Mr Raymond Swift from Harrogate acquired the Wells House Hotel from the company that had run it for 80 plus years.  The impact of the second world war hit Mr Swift very hard as in August 1939 the Government in August took the hotel over, as well as the Golf Hotel, Ben Rhydding (Previously the Ben Rhydding Hydro), to house the Wool Control.  In the Bradford Observer December 20, 1939, it was reported: WAR AND HOTEL TAKINGS – Ilkley proprietor’s difficulties...'Mr Swift said be bought Wells House Hotel on 1 January, and from then to 31 August had spent £1,000 in the property.  The hotel had been taken over by the Wool Control, and he was give 48 hours to get the guests and everyone out... September and December were the two best months for the Wells House.  Last year the takings in September were £1,500 and in December £2,000, but this year he had lost these months...he had over 400 applications for rooms for Christmas, and this alone would have amply paid the rates.  This was the sixteenth week the Government had controlled the hotel, and until they paid something he could not pay the rates.'

In September 1946 Captain W Parlour of Monkend Hall, Croft Darlington, acting on behalf of the Society of Jesuits purchased Wells House Hydro and the historic Holling Hall Farm for £40,000.  The society were hoping to use the properties for an educational project, however Wells House was still occupied by a Wool Control finance, statistics and rationing departments.  Additionally, the Jesuits did not have the bishop’s approval for their plans.  By December 1947 there had been no change and the Ministry of Works were now planning to use the Wells House Hotel as a hostel for European voluntary workers.  By September 1948 the Hotel had been converted to house 300 foreign women workers for the textile industry in about 130 bedrooms.  None of the main inside features of the hotel had been altered, but it had been redecorated throughout in cream.  The American bar was to be used as the reception room.  The words “Ilkla Moor ‘Baht ‘At” and sketches were still around the frieze.  The workers never arrived, and the building remained unoccupied.

In 1950 the West Riding Education Committee approved the purchase from the Jesuits for £40,000 for the establishment of a training college for domestic science teachers.  It took a while for the finances and building to be sorted out and the Ilkley College of Housecraft eventually opened in 1952 with parts of the grounds being developed to provide additional accommodation for the college over the following years.  During the debates about its development the institution had been referred to as the ‘pud school’!

The institution became Ilkley College of Education and then merged with Bradford College to form Bradford and Ilkley College.  The site (including ancillary buildings) which contained around 100 staff and 400 students, was eventually considered too expensive to run and was closed and sold in 1999.  Later building additions were removed and the building and the surrounding site were scheduled for residential development.  The building was refurbished and converted into apartments between 2001–03 by the developer Magellan Residential, retaining some gardens to the north and west while residential properties occupy the rest of its grounds.  The £7.5 million refurbishment, which centred the flats around a new glazed atrium in place of the courtyard, won Bradford District Design Award 2004 for Best Residential Conversion, RICS Pro-Yorkshire for Best Residential Scheme 2003 and the Ilkley Civic Society Award for Conservation 2003.

This plaque has been sponsored by Sponsored by Magellan

Ilkley Local History Hub would like to hear from people with pictures or information about Wells House - localhistory@civicsociety.ilkley.org