Chalybeate Springs

Tunbridge Wells is famous for the chalybeate spring on the edge of the Common drunk from by Lord North in 1606 which supposedly cured him of all matter of ailments.  His physician claimed the iron rich water would  cure "the colic, the melancholy, and the vapours; it made the lean fat, the fat lean; it killed flat worms in the belly, loosened the clammy humours of the body, and dried the over-moist brain."

Word got around, the rich and famous came to drink the water and Tunbridge Wells was born.   All over the greater Tunbridge Wells area there are chalybeate springs.  This one is in Grosvenor & Hilbert Park where I was making dead hedges today.   And what does “chalybeate” mean anyway?   According to Wikipedia  it is  derived from the Latin word for steel; "chalybs". The Chalybes were mythical people living on Mount Ida in north Asia Minor who had invented iron working. So now you know.