What is the history of sea bathing?
Juliet Upton
2025-05-04 15:01:51
Count answers: 3
The first mention of bathing machines is in 1721 when a Nicholas Blundell mentions “a Conveniency for Bathing in the Sea.” Scarborough was in the vanguard of the new craze for sea bathing, helped by the fact that its original spa was actually on the beach. In 1735 “Conveniencies” were being provided at Scarborough for ladies. The machines in the sea are of two types – one looks like a modern garden shed on wheels, rectangular with a pitched roof. The other is square with a pyramidal roof. None of them have the “modesty hood” or “tilt” invented in 1753 by Benjamin Beale, a Quaker from Margate.
Ladies and gentlemen in elegant clothes have been driven down to the beach in their carriages and would have had a perfect view of the bathers, all of whom would have been naked. Sack-like garments for ladies soon appeared but it was considered effeminate for men to wear anything until well into the 19th century.
Emmy Adams
2025-05-04 14:39:50
Count answers: 2
While Bath and other interior Spa towns remained popular places for Regency vacationers and those seeking restorative waters alike, by the 1790’s a new fad had sprung up: Sea-bathing. Prescribed by doctors as early as 1750, things really took off when George III chose to recuperate in Weymouth in 1789, giving this treatment the Royal stamp of approval. The most obvious difference in this Regency form of exercise which sets it apart from its modern-day equivalent is the conditions under which it was prescribed. While one would suppose the summer months to be the most popular in which to visit, view and even bathe in the ocean, doctors of the time often prescribed immersion in the coldest water available- records of the Austen family’s visits range from September to February and nearly every month in between. Sea-bathing was merely an extension of the indoor spa bathing practised at the various bath houses and hot springs located around England. Austen, herself, went bathing on several occasions during a visit to Lyme in September 1804. In Persuasion, Mary Musgrove goes bathing during their extended stay in Lyme in November. The Bathing Machine, invented in the early 1700s by Benjamin Beale, was a wooden hut built on wheels into which a lady could ascend. By the 1890s, bathing machines became stationary and were only used as changing rooms, rather than facilitators for getting into the sea.
Felton Cremin
2025-05-04 10:33:56
Count answers: 2
Emma, Lady Hamilton, came all the way from London in 1784 to bathe at the resort in search of a remedy for a skin complaint. It is believed she lodged privately at Dover Cottage. At the time of her visit she was known as Emma Hart, her name later changing upon her marriage in 1791 to Sir William Hamilton, our ambassador to the kingdom of Naples. Unfortunately Parkgate’s pre-eminence as a seaside resort was short-lived. It began to decline in the middle of the 19th century, when New Brighton overtook it as a popular visitor destination. In 1923, however, new open air baths were constructed on the North Parade, beyond the Boathouse, for Mostyn House School. They were also made available to the public and became very popular with visitors from a wide area, who arrived at Parkgate in great numbers by car and by train. A second, smaller pool was added in 1930. These baths made use of the available sea water but, alas, they too fell into disuse as a result of the encroaching marsh stemming the supply.
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