During the
Roman era the settlement was known as
Salinae and was located at the crossroads of several
Roman roads. Railway construction in 1847 revealed Roman
mosaic pavements. In the ninth century
Historia Brittonum, a text that discusses various landscape folklore across Britain, the hot spring of Droitwich Spa appears to be described in a passage that suggests that the spa was still built up at that time: "The third marvel is a hot pool, which is in the country of the Hwicce [near Worcester] and is surrounded by a wall made of bricks and stone. Men go into it to bathe at all times, and the temperature changes for each of them as they wish: if one man wants a cold bath, it will be cold, and if another wants a hot bath, it will be hot." King John's charter was renewed by
James VI and I on 8 November 1625, establishing the governance of the town and markets. Droitwich remained a fairly small town until the 1960s, when the population was still barely 7,000, but since then it has grown considerably from overspill from
Birmingham with many housing estates being developed in the 1970s and 1980s. In 2014, new housing consent was granted to large developments at Copcut (750 houses) and Yew Tree Hill (765 houses) with a number of other in-fill developments In July 2007, Droitwich was hit heavily by the UK-wide
flooding caused by some of the heaviest rainfall in many years. The flooding was pictured in UK-wide news, having flooded the majority of the heavily subsided high street. Many shops in the high street remained closed almost a year later.
Salt and brine in the town centre Rock salt and brine was extracted by the Romans and this continued through to the
Middle Ages. A salt tax was levied by the king until it was abolished in 1825. A local family named Wintour owned up to 25
salt evaporating pans in the area by the 1600s. Brine rose naturally to the surface at three sites along the River Salwarpe within Vines Park in the centre of Droitwich. Unusually the brine was fully saturated with sodium chloride, and was extremely valuable because it was economic to boil, and the yield of salt was high. Because of its value the brine was divided into shares, one share comprising which produced of salt annually in the set boiling period. When it rained, particularly in the winter when brine was not being boiled, the rain water which is less dense than saltwater, settled on top of the brine and was readily removed. Originally brine for boiling was extracted with buckets lowered into the pits which were naturally replenished. Upwich, the deepest of the three pits at , supplied most of the brine, while the pit at Netherwich was only deep. The Middlewich pit, located between the two, was adversely affected by brine extraction at the other two pits and fell into disuse. Steynor in the 17th century discovered the pit and set up business for himself, but eventually due to the lack of brine he failed to compete with the town monopoly. The underground brine reservoirs were only deep and in 1725
boreholes were sunk to the base of the pits, accessing brine in almost unlimited quantities and independent of the natural brine flow, and the monopoly ceased. Pumps were used to draw brine, and production increased. As a result, parts of the town succumbed to subsidence. In the mid-19th century, Droitwich became famous as a
spa town. Unlike other places, the medicinal benefits were not derived from drinking the spa water, which is almost saturated brine, but from the muscular relief derived from swimming and floating in such a dense, concentrated salt solution, at the town's brine baths (first opened in 1830). The spa water at Droitwich is the
warmest in the United Kingdom outside
Bath, but it does not meet the most common definition of a
hot spring as the water is below standard human body temperature. The original Brine Baths have long since closed, but a new brine bath (part of the Droitwich Spa private hospital) opened to the public for relaxation and hydrotherapy but this too was closed in December 2008 due to a dispute between the operator and Wychavon District Council over health and safety inspections. The salt industry was industrialised and developed in the 19th century by
John Corbett who built the nearby
Chateau Impney for his Franco-Irish wife in the French 'château' style. He was responsible for the redevelopment of Droitwich as a Spa.
Asylums, workhouses and the town hall Droitwich's first workhouse was set up on Holloway in 1688 and the last finally abolished in the 1920s. Droitwich Lunatic Asylum was established in 1791. Records at the Worcestershire County Record Office show its presence in 1837 to 1838. An advert in the Transactions of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association (the forerunner of the
British Medical Association) in 1844, records that Martin Ricketts, of Droitwich, was the Surgeon and
Sir Charles Hastings from the
Worcester Infirmary was the Physician. The
Old Town Hall, which is in St Andrews Street, was completed in 1826. ==Industry and commerce==