| Cumming's Old Bath Hotel, Matlock Bath |
| Matlock and Matlock Bath, Eighteenth
and Ninteenth Century Photographs, Postcards, Engravings & Etchings |
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A card of Cumming's Old
Bath Hotel, dating from the 1840's.
Found in old family documents*, this was where the likes of Lord Byron
and Walter Scott stayed when they visited Matlock Bath to take the
waters.
1 On the front:
[A Phæton is a light four wheeled open
carriage that is usually drawn by a pair of horses]
2 On the back:
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E. Rhodes wrote in "Peak Scenery"[1]:
"Besides the hotel where we have taken up our residence, there are two other
excellent inns at Matlock Bath. The principal one is denominated the Old Bath,
and it is a spacious building, capable of affording accommodations to nearly
one hundred visitors. At this inn there is an excellent assembly-room, with lighted
glass chandeliers ; and a hot and cold bath are included within this establishment.
... In addition to the inns, there are many comfortable lodging houses, the principal
of which is kept by a Mrs. Evans, and known by the name of the Temple. ... It
is connected to the Old Bath by a spacious terrace carried along the side of
the hill which forms a most delightful promenade".
The Old Bath, later the Royal Old Bath Hotel, was eventually demolished and replaced
by the Royal Hotel.
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*Image and information supplied by and Copyright © of David
L Bates from his personal collection
intended for personal use only. If you are interested in this family, please
email David.
He says that 'the note on the card must have been written by my father's father
or one of my grandfather's first cousins'. We think this card dates from between
1840, when the station opened at Ambergate, and 1842, when Mrs. Cumming died.
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References:
[1] Rhodes, Ebenezer (1824) "Peak Scenery"
pub. London, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, Paternoster
Row, p.256
More on site information about the Cumming
family
 Matlock
Biographies: see Cumming
Gem
of the Peak (1840)
Newspaper
Cuttings
Brewer's
Derby Directory, 1823
Taverns &
Pubs, 3 early trade directory extracts
Pigot's
Directory, 1842
Matlock
& Matlock Bath Names in the London Gazette See William John
Cumming in 1843 and Alice
Ann Cumming in 1853. The
Old Bath was a venue for property sales in the 18th
century and a place where officials met in the 19th
century. It was sold in 1857 and
in 1869 the Hydropathic Company
was wound up.
There is more about the opening up of the railway
Matlock
Bath Station and High Tor
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