Wandering the streets of Leamington Spa

I had such a lovely weekend in Leamington Spa; firstly because I was with friends, friends who I always have an exciting time with, secondly we were going to see some live music – in a pub too, an extra bonus! Thirdly, by no means leastly, I was having time to explore a place I don’t know at all, Leamington Spa. I may have driven though it once, many, many years ago, but I didn’t recall it at all.

Royal Leamington Spa as it is more correctly called, formerly Leamington Priors, was as you can guess a spa town, when such places were popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. There have been people living in a township here for more than a thousand years, but the Romans knew of the spa water a thousand years before that.

Wandering round the two we saw many very old and very beautiful buildings and interesting places. we were actually on our way for a cup of tea (and cake) when we passed this elegant building. I quickly snatched a couple of shots, and now I am home I’ve found out a little of its history.

It is Kinmond Court, now a retirement complex; the Kinmonds were a family from Perthshire, where these days so much of our bottled spring water comes from in the Ochil Hills. A John Kinmond appears in the 1881 census, his occupation? Mineral water manufacturer!

If you want to know more about the Kinmonds and their water processing business, here is a very interesting page:

http://www.leamingtonhistory.co.uk/kinmonds/