Town Tour - Walk the Walk or Ride the Ride
Take a tour of Droitwich Spa either by walking or on a bicycle.
If you cycle it is easier to take in more of the sights. You may have to walk at times, but it will be quicker and you will see more.
On the other hand walkers can do a shorter or longer walk depending on how fit they feel.
If you would like a printable map to assist you click here. The map covers most of the Town Tour sites and the written directions cover any sites just off the map. Alternatively you can take a virtual tour with us now.
Your tour starts in the centre of town at St. Richard’s House in Victoria Square.
St Richard's HouseSt. Richard’s House used to be the frontage to the old Brine Baths, which closed in 1974.
A new Brine Baths opened in 1985 and this is just around the corner.
The new Brine Baths provides relaxation and beauty treatments and a gymnasium as well as helping people who suffer from rheumatism or stress. The brine in the baths is denser than the Dead Sea and the current Brine Baths are the only new Spa facility to be built in Britain in the last century.
Across the road is the Raven Hotel, the central part of which stands on the site
Raven Hotelthat was known as the Manor of Wyche. St. Richard, the town’s patron saint was born here. The present building was erected in the reign of Elizabeth I and is a timber-framed structure.
It is said that King Charles I is reputed to have lodged here for three days on his way to storming the city of Leicester in 1645. The majority of the inhabitants of Droitwich Spa during the Civil War were supporters of the King and suffered severely after Oliver Cromwell’s victory over the King.
Across the road from the Raven Hotel is the town’s Public Library, which stands on the site of the Salters Hall.
John Corbett opened this building in 1881, as a place of recreation for the salt workers and townspeople. Corbett was known as the Salt King owning workings at Stoke Prior. When the demand for salt began to fall it was Corbett who made Droitwich into a spa resort town.
Public LibrarySalters Hall held up to 1,500 people and the ground floor became a popular venue for dances, concerts, lectures and other social activities. There was a balcony, library and reading room above.
Although John Corbett promised, in his opening speech, that the hall would become the property of the town, on his death this was not the case and it became the property of the Corbett Trustees.
The Trustees sold it to Mr. Charles Henry Everton in the early 1930’s. He demolished the hall in 1933 and built the Salters Super Cinema in its place.
After the interest in cinema waned in the 1960’s the hall went through a period of neglect and was threatened by demolition. It was then that the plan for a public lending library was drawn up and accepted by the town council.
The building still retains the gallery and the proscenium arch of its cinema days. Cross over the road and walk down St. Andrew’s Street.
Keeping to the left you pass under the clock on the side of the library.