Gilsland Spa
Encyclopedia
Gilsland Spa is the present-day name of an hotel at Gilsland
, Cumbria
, England
. It is named from the sulphurous spring which issues from a cliff below the hotel.
The original hotel was called The Shaws (an old word meaning a small woodland) and was built in the 1740s. Very little is known about this building but one contemporary drawing suggests that it may have had a tower in imitation of the type of fortified house known locally as a peel. The original Shaws Hotel burned down spectacularly in 1859, and was replaced on a grander scale soon afterwards by G. G. Mounsey. Around this time, Rose Hill railway station was renamed Gilsland, and the surrounding collection of hamlets became the village of Gilsland, but the hotel continued to be called The Shaws until it was leased to the Gilsland Spa Hotel and Hydro Company of South Shields
in 1893. Expensive renovations, including an improved water supply, crippled this company financially, and it failed in 1900. During its time the hotel has been a convalescent home and a wartime maternity hospital and was known locally until recently as "The Home". The Co-operative Wholesale Society
took over in 1902 and have run it ever since. The Co-operative Group are the principal shareholders in the business. The present-day management welcome the use of its large car park by visitors wishing to enjoy the dramatic wooded gorge, and offer food, drink and accommodation. Gilsland Spa has a sister hotel, The Esplanade, in Scarborough, Yorkshire
.
The hotel has been a popular resort since the eighteenth century. Susanna Blamire
, the Cumbrian Muse, came to take the waters in the later part of the century and Walter Scott
came here in "the season" of 1797 looking for a wife, and found one. The opening of the railway station in 1836 galvanised the village and during the later part of the 19th century and the early 20th, Gilsland was thronged with tourists, many of whom were working-class people from Tyneside
. Reviewers of the hotel repeatedly stressed the free and easy way in which the different classes mixed. One of the main attractions, though for reasons no-one is prepared to admit, has been the Popping Stone
, an enigmatic stone some half a mile from the hotel in a secluded glade, linked to various courtship and fertility rituals. Next to the stone was the Kissing Bush, an ancient hawthorn
which died in the 1940s. These relics and the two mineral springs (sulphurous and chalybeate
) are situated along the network of wide footpaths known as the Home Walks which provide access to the rugged scenery of the hotel grounds.
Gilsland
Gilsland is a village in northern England about west of Hexham, and about east of Carlisle, which straddles the border between Cumbria and Northumberland...
, Cumbria
Cumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. It is named from the sulphurous spring which issues from a cliff below the hotel.
The original hotel was called The Shaws (an old word meaning a small woodland) and was built in the 1740s. Very little is known about this building but one contemporary drawing suggests that it may have had a tower in imitation of the type of fortified house known locally as a peel. The original Shaws Hotel burned down spectacularly in 1859, and was replaced on a grander scale soon afterwards by G. G. Mounsey. Around this time, Rose Hill railway station was renamed Gilsland, and the surrounding collection of hamlets became the village of Gilsland, but the hotel continued to be called The Shaws until it was leased to the Gilsland Spa Hotel and Hydro Company of South Shields
South Shields
South Shields is a coastal town in Tyne and Wear, England, located at the mouth of the River Tyne to Tyne Dock, and about downstream from Newcastle upon Tyne...
in 1893. Expensive renovations, including an improved water supply, crippled this company financially, and it failed in 1900. During its time the hotel has been a convalescent home and a wartime maternity hospital and was known locally until recently as "The Home". The Co-operative Wholesale Society
Co-operative wholesale society
A Co-operative Wholesale Society, or CWS, is a form of Co-operative Federation , in this case, the members are usually Consumers' Co-operatives...
took over in 1902 and have run it ever since. The Co-operative Group are the principal shareholders in the business. The present-day management welcome the use of its large car park by visitors wishing to enjoy the dramatic wooded gorge, and offer food, drink and accommodation. Gilsland Spa has a sister hotel, The Esplanade, in Scarborough, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
.
The hotel has been a popular resort since the eighteenth century. Susanna Blamire
Susanna Blamire
Susanna Blamire , poet, was of good Cumberland family, and received the sobriquet of The Muse of Cumberland. Her poems, which were not collected until 1842, depict Cumbrian life and manners with truth and vivacity...
, the Cumbrian Muse, came to take the waters in the later part of the century and Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
came here in "the season" of 1797 looking for a wife, and found one. The opening of the railway station in 1836 galvanised the village and during the later part of the 19th century and the early 20th, Gilsland was thronged with tourists, many of whom were working-class people from Tyneside
Tyneside
Tyneside is a conurbation in North East England, defined by the Office of National Statistics, which is home to over 80% of the population of Tyne and Wear. It includes the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Metropolitan Boroughs of Gateshead, North Tyneside and South Tyneside — all settlements on...
. Reviewers of the hotel repeatedly stressed the free and easy way in which the different classes mixed. One of the main attractions, though for reasons no-one is prepared to admit, has been the Popping Stone
Popping Stone
The Popping Stone is a group of three rounded boulders in the Irthing Gorge near the town of Gilsland. It was not always this shape, however, and photographs from before 1870 show a single, much larger stone that must have been drastically altered soon after this date...
, an enigmatic stone some half a mile from the hotel in a secluded glade, linked to various courtship and fertility rituals. Next to the stone was the Kissing Bush, an ancient hawthorn
Crataegus
Crataegus , commonly called hawthorn or thornapple, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the rose family, Rosaceae, native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere in Europe, Asia and North America. The name hawthorn was originally applied to the species native to northern Europe,...
which died in the 1940s. These relics and the two mineral springs (sulphurous and chalybeate
Chalybeate
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"...
) are situated along the network of wide footpaths known as the Home Walks which provide access to the rugged scenery of the hotel grounds.