The Petrifying Well

This is the petrifying well of Matlock Bath. Matlock Bath is a small spa town which was fashionable  in the Victorian Era for hydrotherapy, and now its amusement arcades, fish and chip shops and illuminations make it known as a seaside town without the sea and even the Alps of the Peak District. The petrifying well attracted the Victorian vistors who came to take the waters. Objects such as ‘wigs, booms and birds nests’ were left under the flow of the thermal water. The water is warm and rich in calcium and limestone and the objects became encrusted with mineral. The objects appeared to turn to stone.