The lovely burg of Melksham sits comfortably along the famed River Avon. This river is one of the most cherished in all of the United Kingdom for the many fantastic cities that have sprung up alongside its bountiful waters. Stratford may be one of the more popular Avon towns because of the fact that William Shakespeare was born there but, the brilliance of the Bard notwithstanding, one can definitely argue that the town of Melksham is just as worthy of acclaim as any other town along this historic river.
Melksham has a healthy population of over twenty thousand citizens but what makes it so desirable is the fact that it is very close to other cities that are both smaller and larger. Bath is a mere 19 kilometers away while Chippenham is only eleven kilometers away. Warminster is twenty one kilometers away and all are incredibly easy to reach thanks to the fantastic A350 route. Of these neighbors, one can probably say that Bath is the most like Melksham. Both rose to prominence in the mid 1800s when the Spa Town craze swept across the United Kingdom. In those days it was believed that natural springs with hot water were the most therapeutic way to get rid of all kinds of diseases and illnesses. Many doctors proclaimed that drinking water bottled from the spas was also a great way to ward off most sicknesses and the wealthy citizens of cities like London and Birmingham began to flock in droves to any town that had a natural spring. Though the science behind such claims was never proven, many towns like Bath and Melksham exploded in popularity and it is from those days that many of today's former Spa Towns earned the means to create buildings, banks, schools, and anything else that a city requires to be called a city. At any rate, the Spa Town craze died out fairly quickly when doctors began to say that it wasn't spring water but ocean water that prevented all kinds of illnesses. Once the aristocracy heard this they pulled out of the Spa Towns and flocked to coastal villages and then endowed those places with riches and fortunes, allowing a whole new flock of burgeoning cities to be born.
When the Spa Town craze died out many cities that had spas found themselves in financial ruin because they had no idea that the good times would end. Fortunately Melksham avoided this fate simply because its neighbor Bath was so popular with spa crowds. Melksham never allowed its entire economy to be based on spas because, truthfully, it wasn't able to. Bath was just too much of a spa powerhouse in those days and thus Melksham sought out other arenas to supplement itself. This allowed the city a very smooth and easy transition to other arenas like rubber and tire manufacturing. To this day Melksham is a rubber giant of a city and Avon Rubber is its darling. This should be a lesson to anybody who thinks a town should have only one main economy. You never know what is around the corner and thus diversification is sometimes the best option for a growing town.
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