JEPHSON GARDENS LEAMINGTON SPA the Gardens Began As Farmland Which Belonged to Edward Willes, (A Road Is Named After Him)
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JEPHSON GARDENS LEAMINGTON SPA The gardens began as farmland which belonged to Edward Willes, (A road is named after him). The original gardens, covering just under 10.5 acres (42,000 m2), were laid out in 1834 at the request of the landowner with free entry to anyone between 7 am and 10 am. For the remainder of the day the gardens were open only to paying customers and patrons of a nearby spa bath house. The gardens were soon expanded to their current size. I In 1836, two years after starting the project, Willes leased the land to a local committee for £30 a year In 1846 a local committee meeting declared that the gardens be renamed The Jephson Gardens in honour of Dr Henry Jephson who had helped to promote the healing properties of the town's spa waters and built houses for the town's poor residents. A Corinthian-style temple was added to the gardens in 1849 and inside it a large statue of the doctor. Most of this early work in the gardens was undertaken by poor unemployed labourers. Henry Jephson settled in one of the large terraced houses in York Terrace (now Upper Parade), and within a short time had a list of patients that represented a cross section of the military, naval and governing classes of the time. He established himself as a national, even international figure and it is said that at any given time there would be twenty of his patients staying at the Regent Hotel (Now a Travel Lodge). Henry Jephson regularly entertained a hundred or more people to dances and supper at 7 York Terrace (Upper Parade) Beech Lawn in Warwick Street, built for Dr Jephson in 1832. This was a substantial twenty-room house standing in three acres of garden with half-a- dozen resident staff. He lived there for the rest of his life. The Fire Station now stands on the site (Pity they decided to knock Beech Lawn down) His practice at Beech Lawn flourished and was recognised by a presentation from local tradesmen in appreciation of his ability to attract to the town ‘the sick and opulent from all parts of the Kingdom’. His well-heeled patients ensured that the good doctor was amply remunerated and his annual income was described as ‘almost fabulous’. For several years his income exceeded £20,000 and in one year reached £24,000 (between £1.25m and £1.75m in today’s currency.) That said, two hours of each morning were set aside for treating the poor and any fee which he earned on a Sunday was distributed among his poor patients. Henry Jephson was a man ahead of his time: his treatment of many of his patients included drinking [Leamington Spa] water, eating fresh vegetables, and lots of walking. (Sounds like the advice we get today) A blue plaque in memory of Jephson is attached to 118 Parade. In twenty years he had what was probably, and possibly still is, the most extraordinary success ever achieved by any physician’. Henry Jephson was losing his sight at the age of 48. The Leamington Courier newspaper in 1848 carried the news that Henry Jephson had retired from professional duties. He was fifty years of age. He died at the age of 79 at Beech Lawns and is buried at St James Old Milverton .