The 400-year history of Epsom Wells was explored in a talk at a packed Stoneleigh Library last week.

Bourne Hall Museum curator Jeremy Harte spoke about the various stages in the life of the wells since Epsom Salts were discovered in 1618.

Speaking to Epsom Guardian since the event, Mr Harte gave a brief history of how the discovery affected the town.

He said: "This year marks the four hundredth anniversary of the day when Henry Wicker’s cow refused to taste some salty waters on Epsom Common, and local entrepreneurs realised that people would drink what cattle wouldn’t.

"The story sounds legendary, but Mr. Wicker is real enough: we’ve found him in the Assize records. He was a farmer, like many of the locals who began hiring out rooms to spa-bibbers from London.

"Epsom was only a village then, and sometimes the family pig had to be ousted from its spot by the fire to make way for gentlemen.

"By 1663, when Samuel Pepys came down for the day, there were two inns – the Kings Head, which was minting its own pennies to make good a shortage of small change for customers, and the New Inn, built nearer the Wells, reusing blocks of stone from the demolished glories of Nonsuch Palace.

"Epsom was famous as a centre for healing, but to some it was a home for debauchery. The dissolute Lord Rochester arrived drunk in 1676 and tossed the town fiddlers in a blanket before starting a fracas in which a man died.

"By 1711 the town had a master of ceremonies to keep this sort of thing under control, and more polished pleasures were on offer.

"The Assembly Rooms were built by a couple of sharp-fingered goldsmiths from London who made money from gambling tables. Visitors included the irrepressible Celia Fiennes, who travelled around every English spa in an age when most ladies hardly left their own estates; she was particularly impressed by the sash windows looking out on its bowling green.

"An enterprising apothecary, John Livingstone, built a second spa complex in Epsom itself, behind the Albion, where he sank a well to the right depth for collecting magnesium suplphate and supplied all the necessary amenities.

"But after his death in 1727 the spa tradition came to a suden end, snuffed out by local gentlemen who had bought grand houses in the neighbourhood and didn’t want to see it go downhill."