Roman Baths

Two photos in the Museums collection of Chad Negatives, these just say ‘Roman Bath’ and were taken in July 1983. The mystery is where was this Roman Bath, what is the story behind the picture and who is the person on the photo?

CHAD T4742-26
CHAD T4742-28

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  • While these comments might be a bit late as P.Bowler asked for information in 2015, however. Dr.Goldie was a G.P in Mansfield. He also owned the mill. He lived in Park Avenue Mansfield. In 1917 when he was a toddler, my great Aunt Edith Cooper was his nanny. She was married in mid 1917 to Able Seaman Herbert Wright. Herbert was killed in early 1918 and is buried in the Cambrai East cemetery France. Edith never married again and she lived in Park Avenue until the death of Dr.Goldie as his companion and housekeeper.

     

    By john warner (15/01/2018)
  • According to the Chad article attached to the photograph, (published 14th August 1983, page 5), source: Chad archives, Mansfield local studies library, the headline read, ‘Roman well discovered?’ It was a group of Community Programme workers who ‘found’ it while clearing land near the Goldie, Wade & Goldie Mill off Bath Lane. They thought they’d stumbled on a Roman well as one of the supervisors was convinced that the three foot deep well had its origins in Roman times. At the time of going to press this was still waiting for official confirmation. I don’t know if there are any further developments to the story as I’ve not checked further on. The article does state that Notts. County Council, which was running the scheme, hoped eventually to turn the site into an industrial museum, which obviously didn’t happen. This was one of a number of projects being carried out by NCC at the time in the county.

    Unfortunately it doesn’t give a name for the man in the photograph, perhaps he was the supervisor mentioned above?

    By Jenny Wright (17/01/2017)
  • When I was a child in the 50s we used to go scrumping in the garden between the big house on Ravensdale Rd and Goldie Wade and Goldie. This shrine is located about half way to Goldie Wade and Goldie factory. There was a statue in the recess of the Virgin Mary – it used to scare us as children. I know this area very well as this is where I grew up 

    By paul baggaley (03/03/2015)
  • Hello, I also spent my childhood in Mansfield in the 1950s, I am interested to find any history of Goldie Wade and Goldie, especially Dr Goldie who managed the mill until at least 1946.

    By P.Bowler (03/03/2015)
  • This is an extract from the History of Mansfield, by William Horner Groves (1894) Formerly, when the Forest existed in the neighbourhood in its glory, there used to be a holy well, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, in Bath Lane, as it is still called owing to the well being at the end. When Mr. White, of Sheffield, wrote his directory, about 1823, it was then used as a public bath. Mr. White, an old resident of Mansfield (over 80 years of age in 1891), told me that, when a boy, he used to go with his companions to bathe in this well. The water, however, was so cold that he was soon out again. There is a tradition that the well possesses certain valuable medicinal properties which, if now made public, might increase the importance of the town. The well, or spring, still exists in the grounds adjoining Mr. Goldie’s mill, but its exact locality is known to only a few, and in a few years it will probably be forgotten. Mr. Harrod, in his history of the town, says: “Though I am not of the tribe of water drinkers, I had the curiosity to taste thereof, and pronounce it to be neither saline nor tepid.”

    By Angela Roche (23/11/2013)
  • My great aunt, Mrs Edith Wright was housekeeper for Dr.Goldie and during the early 1950’s my Aunt Mrs.Marion Newcombe lived in one of the cottages attached to the end of the factory. Great Auntie Edie was a war widow .She had one day of married life and her husband aged 20 went off to war and was killed near Cambrai France where he is buried.

    By john warner (11/11/2013)
  • You mentioned Goldie Wade and Goldie Berisford, Doctor Goldie who managed the mill until at least 1946 was a relative of mine and I’m trying to trace any of his descendants. If you have any information on any of them I would be grateful if you could let me have it.

    By Peter Bowler (29/07/2013)
  • These so-called Roman Baths was (as I have been were through the gates), just near Bath Lane/ Ravensdale Road, along the drive way a little and down to the left hand. That’s as far as the story goes, I heard not of anything except what I have just mentioned.

    By Pete Bennett (02/07/2013)
  • I remember this so called ‘Roman Well’ being uncovered/rediscovered. It is/was in the grounds of the Goldie, Wade & Goldie Mill off Bath Lane, down by the Maun. I suspect it’s nothing more than part of the water management for the mill, ‘lost’ when the mill converted to electric power.

    By Berisford Jones (28/06/2013)

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