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Calne Curiosities: Doctor's Pond

Dr Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), was an  English clergyman, political theorist, and physical scientist. He made waves wherever he stayed, but is best remembered for his contributions to chemistry and the gases he discovered. 

As a relative newcomer to Calne, I was informed many times that Oxygen was discovered in our ancient town. 

Desperate to discover more, I discovered that this widespread rumour comes from a poorly worded plaque along the river Marden in Calne. This has led many to perpetuate the false idea that Dr Joseph Priestley discovered Oxygen at the location of Doctor's Pond. 

The plaque also provides incorrect dates for Priestley's time here. 

Finally, 'Priestley House' at The Green is based on an assumption, rather than known fact.

Can we explain all of these inconsistencies? If Oxygen wasn't discovered in Calne, then where?

The life of Joseph Priestley is so full and varied that entire books have been written about the man. However, for our purposes, I have restricted the details to those that felt most relevant to telling a story of development and discovery before laying out the facts as I see them.

 

Joseph Priestley was born during March 1733 at Birstall Fieldhead near Leeds. This area was not only a Calvinist stronghold, but the heart of the West Riding woollen industry, so it comes are no surprise that his father, Jonas, was part of this industry. The role of Jonas was as a woollen cloth dresser, taking raw pieces of woollen cloth through their finishing processed to prepare for sale.

Joseph was sent to live with his maternal grandfather when just a year old. Being one of six children, this was not an uncommon situation as many homes could not accommodate such large quantities of children. At six, after the death of his mother, he returned home. However, he was sent off again soon after. This time to Sarah Keighley, an aunt on his father's side. He was eventually adopted by Sarah and her husband John, who died in 1745 leaving enough in the way of finances for Sarah to continue to raise Joseph.

Sarah was devout, with prayers twice a day and regular prayer meetings. This rubbed off on young Joseph, who would devour religious texts in his free time becoming a Unitarian. This put him at odds with his Calvinist aunt and family. However, this was likely the testing ground for his convictions.

His Unitarian faith prevented the astonishingly intelligent Joseph from attending the colleges at Oxford or Cambridge. In September 1752, he travelled to a dissenting college at Daventry, established by carpenter turned Reverend, Caleb Ashworth. Joseph Priestley became his most distinguished scholar, after entering the course of studies in the third of five years, missing the first two.

After college Joseph took the position of assistant to minister John Meadows at Needham Market. He was not well received. The stress of which brought back the stammer he had so struggled to control. With his congregation diminishing, he turned to writing after briefly attempting to start a school. One of his texts on religious doctrine was published as an anonymous pamphlet and well received.

Several successful teaching positions were undertaken in the following years, leading to Joseph being both ordained and married in 1762. His 19 year-old wife, Mary, was very sociable, which in turn brought Priestley more friends. This was followed by the birth of their first child, Sarah (Sally), in 1763.

Priestley became a Doctor of Laws in 1764 at the recommendation of his employers, the trustees of the Warrington Academy. It is around this period of time that his interest in science and technology took hold, with long hours at his scientific apparatus.

 

 

One particularly interesting discovery by Priestley was the process of artificially carbonating water. He first developed this process in 1767, during his time living next to a brewery in Leeds.

Priestley had gained permission to collect ‘air’ bubbling up from vats of fermenting beer, which he then began to investigate. He found that this ‘air’ was ‘fixed’ air, named by discoverer Joseph Black in 1756. We now know ‘fixed’ air by the name carbon dioxide.

Being heavier than ordinary air, the carbon dioxide readily dissolved in water. Priestley named the result, ‘artificial Pyrmont water’, after the natural equivalent known from many spa towns.  Priestley went on to show that pouring sulphuric acid onto chalk and water would also generate carbon dioxide.

This process was pushed to the back of Priestley’s mind after 1767, as he went on to study other ‘airs’. However, in March 1772, Priestley was invited to dine with the Duke of Northumberland, as one of the guests. As an experiment, all of the guests were asked to drink some water distilled from seawater. They all agreed that the water was perfectly drinkable, but tasteless and flat.

This led Priestley to announce that he could restore the taste and freshness of the water. The guests being sufficiently intrigued, the required apparatus was assembled at friend Joseph Johnson’s house the following day. Those present were sufficiently impressed that Priestley’s ‘artificial Pyrmont water’ not only circulated through London’s high society, but he was invited to the Royal College of Physicians to provide a demonstration.

Priestley was pleased with the positive feedback from the Physicians that in June 1772, he published a pamphlet entitled, ‘Directions for Impregnating Water with Fixed Air’.  Within a few weeks, the pamphlet was published in French and for sale in Paris.

However, this is where Priestley's interest stopped. It would be Johann Jacob Schweppe who would spend the following decade simplifying the process for industrial use. This eventually became the Schweppes beverage brand.  The iconic 'Schweppes fountain' trade mark on the label dates back to The Great Exhibition of 1851, which was filled with Schweppes Malvern Soda Water.

It seems that Priestley was the inspiration, if not the foundation, of what has become an industry worth approximately £8.2 billion in the UK alone.

 

Fast forward to 1773, Priestley and his family move to The Green in Calne to take the position of companion and educational advisor to the Earl of Shelburne at Bowood. You may note that the plaque wording suggests that Priestley was in Calne between 1772 and 1779, an incorrect statement as Priestley and family arrived in Calne during June 1773.

19, The Green, is the assumed first Calne home of Joseph Priestley. This is based on the discovery of some marks on the wall of the cellar, which indicated where Priestley's apparatus had been fixed, by the Town Clerk in 1933. The issue being that all letters to Priestley were addressed 'The Green' with no house number. This house was then named 'Priestley House', which Priestley lived in between 1773 and July 1775.

In July 1775, Priestley and his family moved to Grade II listed, The Vicarage on Mill Street. It is during his time here that a pond was installed, along with a genuine laboratory at the home. Prior to this Priestley had only two available laboratories: Bowood, and Shelburne House in London.

Now we have arrived at the crux if of the issue. The pond wasn't in place until at least 1775, but Priestley had discovered Oxygen in 1774. This pond cannot have been the location of this discovery. Let's look at a timeline of events:

The experiments were performed over a period of nearly a year, firstly at Bowood and then in London:

1774: 1 August at his laboratory at Bowood House. Priestley first discovered oxygen and found that 'a candle burned in this air with a remarkably vigorous flame'.

1775: February/March at his laboratory at Shelburne House, London. Priestley continued his experiments and began to realise the importance of the discovery as it could be breathed, even writing that at some point in the future, pure air might become a fashionable luxury. His findings were read at the Royal Society on 23 March, 1775, followed by a paper in the Royal Society's scientific journal titled "An Account of further Discoveries in Air".

There were some prior experiments, but Priestley did not recognise oxygen at this point. It is much more likely that the water required for these experiments would have been collected from the lake at Bowood, completed by Capability Brown by 1766.

"The feeling of it in my lungs," Priestley wrote, "was not sensibly different from that of common air, but I fancied that my breast felt peculiarly light and easy for some time afterwards. Who can tell but that in time, this pure air may become a fashionable article in luxury. Hitherto only two mice and myself have had the privilege of breathing it."

 

During his time in Calne, Priestley attended and preached on occasions at a chapel on the corner of Bollings Lane and Back Row. Approximately where the flats of Linden Close now reside, with the chapel demolished in 1960.

 

What of Doctor's Pond? 

This pond no longer exists. In a 2013 letter to The Times, the person living in The Vicarage, advises that the pond is on the far side of the river Marden, under the car park, which until recently was used by the Co-op store. 

A pond definitely did exist there, and is shown on the 1886 map of Calne. However, this pond was in the land of another property. It seems more likely that the pond was within the grounds of The Vicarage and over time was backfilled. It seems odd to this researcher as to why a pond would be created on the other side of an accessible water source, such as the Marden. Surely, logic would dictate that an artificial water source would be more convenient than the natural water source?

 

As the working relationship with Shelburne became untenable, Priestley left Calne for Birmingham in August 1780. After dismissal, Shelburne honour the agreement to provide Priestley an annuity of £150 until death. Priestley moved around with his family, first to London in 1791, followed by America in 1794, sadly without daughter Sally whom he never saw again. It was in American that he died, on the morning of 6 February 1804.

 

So, it seems reasonable to suggest that Joseph Priestley arrived in Calne during 1773 to work for Lord Shelburne. He first lived at a house on The Green, which may have been 19, The Green. He discovered Oxygen at Bowood House before moving to The Vicarage at Mill Street and installing a pond. After the working relationship between Lord Shelburne and himself, Priestley left Calne in 1780 to move to Birmingham.

Perhaps a more accurate plaque would read:

"Doctor's Pond, an area so named after JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, 

who discovered Oxygen at Bowood House, 

while dwelling in Calne. 1773 - 1780"

Place Names of Calne: Woodroffe Square

Original housing on Woodroffe Square.

This development was named for William Woodroffe. Woodroffe's 1670 will provided 50s a year to pay for 5 poor boys born in Calne Borough* to be taught freely.

This was done at a school on Church Street, which closed in 1829, but the endowment carried on at the National School for Boys, which still stands as a private residence on The Green. Woodroffe's endowments were eventually combined with that of Fynamore's and Bentley's and provided a scholarship at Calne county school[1]. 

The original 1960s development was regenerated in 2019, with the demolition of numbers 49 to 60 Woodroffe Square, which comprised of 12 flats over 36 underlying garages. These were replaced by 24 properties of 15 two and three bedroom houses and 9 two bedroom apartments[2].

Some of the new properties on Woodroffe Square.

*Calne ceased as a borough in 1974.

References:
[1] Calne: Education | British History Online. 2019. Calne: Education | British History Online. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/wilts/vol17/pp111-114. [Accessed 30 August 2019].
[2] Staff Reporter. 2019. Woodroffe Square Development Complete In Calne. [ONLINE] Available at: https://calnenews.com/index.php/calne-news/808-woodroffe-square-development-complete-in-calne?fbclid=IwAR1f3RyHUqkTHAQolcKrTiz2ZU6S5EFdkWnsI4scuaoP2-R4EFHoOhkmeCc. [Accessed 30 August 2019].