St Richard's House, Victoria Square, Droitwich Spa - 01905 774 312 heritage@droitwichspa.gov.uk

Originally, called Saltwich, a settlement specialising in salt production. It later became the 'dirty wich' -- its low-lying, muddy character is attested to in historical documents.

In Roman times the village was known as Salinae and was located at the crossroads of several Roman roads. Railway construction in 1847 revealed Roman mosaic pavements, and later excavations unearthed a Roman villa or corridor house some 40 metres (130 ft) long.

Droitwich Lunatic Asylum was established in 1791. Records at the Worcestershire County Record Office show its presence in 1837 to 1838. An advert in the Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, in 1844, records that Martin Ricketts, of Droitwich was the Surgeon and Sir Charles Hastings from the Worcester Infirmary was the Physician.

Droitwich remained a fairly small town until the 1960s, when the population was still barely 7,000; however, it has grown considerably since due to overspill from Birmingham with many housing estates being developed in the 1970s and 1980s.

More recently, in July 2007, Droitwich was hit heavily by the UK-wide flooding caused by some of the heaviest rainfall in many years. This flooding was pictured in UK-wide news, having flooded the majority of the heavily subsided high street. Many shops in the high street remain closed almost one year later. The flooding crossed from the stream and canal in Vines Park, crossed Roman Way, and spilled across to the High Street some 100 metres from the source stream.

Saltworkers by John McKenna in the town centre.Rock salt and brine was extracted by the Romans and this continued through the Middle Ages. Salt tax was levied by the King until it was abolished as a tax in 1825. The Wintour family, a local family owned up to 25 salt evaporating pans locally by the 1600s.

Salt was extracted by pumping up saturated brine from the salt deposits, and evaporating the brine, if the extraction occurs at a steady rate, rainwater will naturally replace the saturated brine, but if the brine is pumped out too quickly subsidence can occur; over the years the removal of enormous quantities of salt from the substrata of the town led to considerable, if gradual, subsidence in some parts of the town; one photograph from the early 20th century shows one Droitwich house tilted at a considerable angle from the vertical.

In the 19th century, Droitwich became famous as a Spa town. Unlike other places, the medicinal benefits were not derived from drinking the spa water, which is almost saturated brine, but from the muscular relief derived by swimming and floating in such a dense, concentrated salt solution, at the town's brine baths (first opened in 1830). The spa water at Droitwich is the warmest in the United Kingdom outside Bath, but it does not meet the most common definition of a hot spring as the water is below standard human body temperature.

The original Brine Baths have long since closed, but a new brine bath (part of the Droitwich Spa private hospital) opened to the public for relaxation and hydrotherapy. But this too is now closed for financial reasons (December 2008). No date is yet known for it to reopen.

The salt industry was industrialised and developed in the 19th century by John Corbett who built the nearby Chateau Impney for his Irish wife in the French 'chateau' style. Corbett was responsible for much of the development of Droitwich as a Spa.

Opened in the 1930s was the town's lido, a large open-air swimming pool, which used diluted brine from beneath the town. After many years of closure it was reopened in 2006.