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Royal Tunbridge Wells
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Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in west Kent in England, on the northern edge of the Weald. In general usage the appellation “Royal” is dropped from its title. Its boundaries lie across the border of Kent with East Sussex. It has a population of approximately 56,500. The town is the administrative centre of Tunbridge Wells Borough.
The town came into being as a spa in Georgian times and had its heyday as such in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when the popularity of sea-bathing took away much of its clientele. Today the town is a relatively affluent place, within commuting distance of London.
The town is twinned with Wiesbaden in Germany. In 2006 it celebrated its 400th anniversary.
Name of the townHasted (1797) makes the assertion that, although the wells were originally named the Queen’s Wells because of their early royal visitor (see below), they soon took on the name of Tunbridge Wells, since they acquired it from the company usually residing at Tunbridge town (the spelling then used by Tonbridge) when they came into these parts for the benefit of drinking the waters. The similar names - Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells - have been a source of confusion ever since, especially to rail travellers.
The prefix "Royal" dates to 1909, when King Edward VII officially recognised the popularity of the town amongst royalty and aristocracy by bestowing the town with its official "Royal" title. To this day, Royal Tunbridge Wells is one of only two towns in England to be granted this, the other being Royal Leamington Spa.
GeographyTunbridge Wells is situated at the northern edge of the High Weald, a ridge of hard sandstone across southern England from Hampshire along the borders of Surrey, West and East Sussex and Kent. The original centre of the settlement lies on the border between the two latter counties. Its site is at the head of valley running in south-easterly direction to Groombridge; the stream in the valley is one of the many tributaries of the River Medway. Along the valley sides are a great many Chalybeate springs, rich in iron.
It was one of these springs that eventually led to the establishment of the town. Over the course of time it grew in size: buildings appeared up the sides of the valley on either side; and later over the ridge at the head of it. The ridge overlooks the much larger valley of the River Medway at Tonbridge. The earliest of these buildings are to be found along the London Road (A264) to the north; on Mount Ephraim and in the Calverley area. The point where the former two meet is the Fiveways.
Nearby villages are now part of the built-up area of the town: so that now it incorporates Southborough and High Brooms to the north; Hawkenbury to the south; Rusthall (whose name resonates with the iron content of the rocks; one such is the peculiarly-shaped Toad Rock) and Langton Green to the west. The latter village, well into the 20th century, had a number of stone quarries from which the hard sandstone of the Wealden ‘’Hastings beds’’ were taken, many to build the houses in Tunbridge Wells. The map extract shows part of the town extent in 1946; most of the area shown, apart from the Commons (see Parks and Green Spaces below), is now occupied by buildings. Named areas of the town include St Johns, St James, Sherwood Park, and Ramslye. Details of some of the commercial properties in the town (restaurants, hotels and shops) are given below. thessembly Hall
As with most towns, Tunbridge Wells has industrial estates: there are four major ones: High Brooms Industrial Estate and the North Farm Estate, both at Southborough; the Broadwater and Pantiles Estates on the A264 to the south; and the Cinema Estate, occupying land close to the town centre. The latter site, including the erstwhile Ritz Cinema and Telephone House, has been a vacant site since 2000; its development has been somewhat protracted
Among the organisations whose headquarters are in the town, the following are major employees: Freight Transport Association, is in St John's Road; FocusVision, a video service for market research, is on Mount Ephraim ]; and AXA PPP Healthcare is in Crescent Road.
HistoryIn prehistory Iron Age people mined the iron-rich rocks in the Tunbridge Wells area. The most important archaeological site is the hill-fort at High Rocks, built to protect the miners. The area continued to be part of the Wealden iron industry, until its demise in the late eighteenth century.
The area which is now Tunbridge Wells was part of the parish of Speldhurst for hundreds of years. The basis for the town of today, however, was in the seventeenth century. In 1606 came the discovery of one of the Chalybeate springs by Dudley, Lord North, a courtier to James I. Having drunk from the spring he became convinced of its healing properties; and persuaded many of his rich friends in London of that fact. As a result, two years later after people had begun to flock to the spot, and wells were dug. In 1636 two houses were built catering for the visitors; although even before then there had been royal visitors, including Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I in 1629..
For the next fifty years, until 1678, little permanent building took place, although tradespeople, encouraged by the burgeoning tourist industry, had long before set up stalls around the spring. On that date a ‘’chapel of ease’’, dedicated to King Charles the Martyr was built and two years later the town began to develop around it. In 1797 Edward Hasted described the new town by saying that it consisted of four small districts, named after the hills on which they stand, Mount Ephraim, Mount Pleasant and Mount Sion; the other is called the Wells …
The 1680s was a building boom in the town: carefully-planned shops were built beside the 175-yard (156m) long Pantiles (then known as the Walks); and the road Mount Sion, on which lodging house keepers were to build, was laid out in small plots. Careful attention was paid to the height and sewerage along the Pantiles: all so that the fashionable visitors should not be discouraged . Tradesmen in the town dealt in the luxury goods demanded by their patrons. These would have included Tunbridge ware, wood-inlaid objects. The writer Celia Fiennes (1662-1741) described a walk though the Pantiles in 1697.
Large houses began to be built on the various hills, particularly on Mount Ephraim.
Fashions in leisure changed when that for sea-bathing took over, and fewer visitors came to the town. Nevertheless, the era of the tolls roads gave Tunbridge Wells better communications: a spur road from the London to Hastings road came into being in the 1760s. At the time Decimus Burton was architect of both St Leonards-on-Sea new town on the Sussex coast and in particular the estate at Calverley Park in Tunbridge Wells; so the fact that the well-to-do lived in both places may have had some reason for that.
During the eighteenth century the growth of the town continued, as did its patronage by the wealthy leisured classes, although the initial enthusiasm had abated. The road plan of the town had been agreed. The Grove (see Parks and Green Spaces below) was donated to the town in 1703. Richard (Beau) Nash appointed himself as master of ceremonies for all the entertainments which the town had to offer.
By the early nineteenth century Tunbridge Wells began to experience growth as a place for the well-to-do to make their homes. A new estate on Mount Pleasant; the building of the parish church, dedicated to the Holy Trinity; and the provision of town facilities such as a water company and a dispensary; meant that, by the 1830s, the town, had a population of about 6,000 people
In 1845 a new form of communication came to the town: the South Eastern Railway built a short branch from its main line at Tonbridge to serve the town: this was later extended but not for another six years (see Communications below). Roads for a time began to fall into disrepair; it was not until the era of the motor-car and the invention of tarmacadam that they became more popular as a means of travel. Even in 2008 there is still much disquiet about the state of the road system to the town.
Following on its earlier popularity with the leisured classes, the town in the 19th century attracted the Victorian businessman, and the large villas in the northern part of the old town centre, began to be built. Other suburbs, for the tradespeople of the town, continued its growth. Commuters on the now main-line Hastings Line railway moved into the town, and new estates were being built to house them.
Tunbridge Wells today, having far outgrown its origins, presents itself as a combination of regional centre, tourist attraction, light industrial and commercial centre and commuter town.
GovernanceThe Member of Parliament for the constituency of Tunbridge Wells, which includes the entire Borough, is Greg Clark. He was elected in 2005, and is a former Conservative party strategist. The constituency is probably regarded as a strong Conservative hold; and even as one of the spiritual homes of the party: previous members have been Sir Patrick Mayhew and the former Asda chairman Archie Norman.
Tunbridge Wells local elections, which are again for the entire Borough council, show a pattern since 1973 of Conservative party dominance, apart from two years in the later 1990s when the Liberal Democrats (UK) held the upper hand. At the last local election, in 2007, the Conservatives held 41 seats, Liberal Democrats seven, on the Borough council. In the nine wards within the town, only one was won by a Liberal candidate: St John's, to the north of the town centre. The elections held in May 2008 gave the Conservatives an even greater lead with 44 seats, leaving the Liberal Democrats with only 4.
CommunicationsTunbridge Wells is at the hub of a series of roads. The A26 passes through the town, giving access to Maidstone to the north-east and Lewes, East Sussex, to the south-west. The A21, following the path of its turnpike ancestor, runs to east of the town, not passing through it; it is reached by the A264, the road which also leads south-west to Horsham. To the south the A267 is the Eastbourne road. The roads around the town suffer some traffic problems, not least through Southborough; planned schemes are at present (2008) on hold. There is also a bottleneck on the A21 near Pembury; plans for there are similarly in abeyance.
Bus services are operated chiefly by Arriva Southern Counties, with both local rural services as well as express services to locations including Bromley and Maidstone. Eastbourne & Brighton on the south coast are accessible on services run by Eastbourne Buses and Brighton & Hove, and Metrobus operate hourly services to Crawley.
Tunbridge Wells town historically had three railway stations: two of these are still in use by National Rail services. Tunbridge Wells station is, as its former name of Tunbridge Wells Central suggests, centrally located within the town at the end of the High Street, whilst High Brooms station is situated in in that area to the north of the town. Both st ations are located on the double-tracked electrified Hastings Line; services are operated by the Southeastern train operating company. Tunbridge Wells West station was opened by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway in 1866 as the terminus of its competing line to Tunbridge Wells, and closed in 1985 with that line. The station building is now a restaurant, and a Sainsbury's supermarket occupies the former goods yard. However part of the line has since been reopened by the Spa Valley Railway, a steam operated heritage railway, and Tunbridge Wells West station serves as its eastern terminus. The tunnelled link line between the West and erstwhile Central stations, opened in 1876, remains closed.
CultureTunbridge Wells is twinned with
- Wiesbaden, Germany
In 1960, through an advertisement in the national press, contact was made between former paratroopers in Wiesbaden, and four English ex-servicemen in Tunbridge Wells. Through this contact the friendship that now exists between the two towns sprang up, and also through this the Tunbridge Wells Twinning and Friendship Association (TWTFA)was formed.
The arts are well represented. The Assembly Halls and the Trinity Theatre (formerly Holy Trinity Church) both offer live comedy, drama, film and music. Music is usually played in the bandstand in the Pantiles during the summer period.
The Royal Tunbridge Wells Civic Society exists to promote the enhancement and conservation of the town.
AmenitiesThe Kent & Sussex Hospital on Mount Ephraim; and the Nuffield hospital on the Pembury road supply some medical needs. Woodville Park cemetery is located off St John's Road .
In view of its high profile as a tourist place, Tunbridge Wells has a number of hotels . The Swan Hotel in the Pantiles is an old coaching inn as was The Compasses in the Village part of town; whereas The Spa was an 18th century mansion. The Hotel du Vin, formerly the Calverley Hotel, is on Decimus Burton's Calverley estate.
Similarly, at least one of the town's restaurants have a famous pedigree: that of William Makepeace Thackeray's house: now Thackeray's. Again, as befitting such a town, there are large numbers of other restaurants, pubsclubs and bars in the town centre, as well as those in the wider town area, .
The major shopping centre is the Royal Victoria Place Shopping Centre: it was opened by Diana, Princess of Wales in 1992. This, combined with the Calverley, Camden and Grosvenor Roads, provides many chain retail outlets. Hoopers (formerly Weekes), the largest department store in the town, is situated on Mount Pleasant Road, near the railway station . The once down-at-heel Camden Road has been upgraded since 2000, including an art gallery and a goth clothing and fashion shop. A particular landmark is the snooker club, a former Working Mens Club, see Working Men's Club and Institute Union, with its elephant-flanked doorway.
The Vale Road area (between London Road (the A264) and the High Street) has seen considerable investment over the last two decades. Here there are modern buildings such as the AXA offices and Pomeroi Jewellers. The former main post office, now Post Office Square, is an exclusive development of apartments with retail premises underneath, currently occupied by health and beauty businesses.
At the end of Lime Hill Road is the newly refurbished (2007), but controversial, Millennium Clock, designed by a local sculptor.
A farmers market is held outside the Town Hall on the second and fourth Saturday morning of each month and in The Pantiles on the first and third Saturday of each month.
Parks and green spacesTunbridge Wells contains many green spaces, ranging from woodland to maintained grounds and parks.
Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall CommonsThe most substantial area of woodland is the Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall Commons comprising of 250 acres of woodland and heathland starting only a short walking distance from Tunbridge Wells town centre. Open areas of the common are popular picnic spots with a maintained cricket ground situated next to Wellington Rocks. Their important nature has led to the formation of a Friends group.
Calverley Grounds
Located in the town centre, opposite the train station, Calverley Grounds is a historic park with ornamental gardens and a band stand. The park originally belonged to Mount Pleasant House which was converted into a hotel (now the Hotel du Vin) in 1837 until 1920 when the Borough Council eventually secured the purchase of the park. The facilities include a cafe, 3 tennis courts, a basketball court and 3 croquet courts.
Dunorlan ParkThe largest maintained green space in the town, Dunorlan Park was once a private garden belonging to a now demolished grand mansion owned by the Yorkshire-born millionaire Henry Reed. The Gardens were designed by the renowned Victorian gardener Robert Marnock, though over the years the landscape became over grown making the full scope of Marnock's design hard to distinguish. In 1996 the Tunbridge Wells Borough Council applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to restore the park to the original designs. A well loved part of these original designs is another opening of the Chalybeate spring. Marnock included the Chalybeate Spring in his garden design and it was left completely unaltered; it is one of the most popular features of the park.
Dunorlan Park restoration projectThe 2003 the restoration project began at a cost of £2.8 million (£2.1 million of which came from Lottery funding). The park is now listed as Grade II on English Heritage's National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.
Smaller parks and grounds- St John's Recreational Ground
- Currently undergoing extensive refurbishments, St John's park is located near both Tunbridge Wells Girls' Grammar School and The Skinners' School and is frequently used as a meeting place for the students before, after and during school. The grounds contain many sporting facilities for the public including 3 tennis courts, a basketball court and a bowls green.
- The Grove lies further south of the town centre, located in the Mount Sion village area of the town, accessible via the High Street. The green space contains a children's play area.
- Grosvenor and Hilbert Recreational grounds
- Grosvenor recreation ground is close to the town centre, being the towns oldest public park. The park has its own lake and children's play area; situated near the children's play area there is a newly opened cafe serving ice creams and drinks. Hilbert recreation ground adjoins Grosvenor park and has extensive grass opened space. Within the grounds there is a wheeled sports area and football pitches. Some parts are designated a Local Nature Reserve managed by Kent High Weald Project These include Hilbert Woods and the adjoining grass areas.
- Entrances to Grosvenor and Hilbert recreational grounds are from Auckland Road, Upper Grosvenor Road and Hilbert Road.
CrimeThe statistics for crime in Tunbridge Wells show that there are far fewer crimes than the national average occurring in the area:
Crime Rates in Tunbridge Wells (per 1000 population)| Offence | Locally | Nationally | | Robbery | 0.61 | 1.85 | | Theft of a motor vehicle | 2.98 | 4.04 | | Theft from a motor vehicle | 6.47 | 9.59 | | Sexual offences | 0.81 | 1.17 | | Violence against a person | 10.68 | 19.97 | | Burglary | 3.94 | 5.67 |
Educational institutions- For list of all schools in Tunbridge Wells, see List of schools in Kent
Tunbridge Wells is a centre for educational excellence (2006), with 75.7% of 15 year olds achieving 5 or more GCSEs A* - C. These are the fifth best results in the country.
The Salomons Campus of Canterbury Christ Church University provides postgraduate programmes.
Tunbridge Wells peopleExternal links
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