COUNCIL COMMITTEES: BATHS AND WASH-HOUSES COMMITTEE

<p>For later baths see Market and Baths Committee</p>

This Committee was established by the Council on 11 Jan. 1850 when the Corporation decided to assume responsibility for public baths and wash-houses under the Act of 9 and 10 Victoria. The first meeting of the committee was held on 30 March 1850 at which negotiations were begun to purchase from a private Baths Committee baths and wash-houses situated near the Water Tower. The first reference to this private Baths Committee so far found occurs in the minutes of the Corporate Estate Committee on 21 April 1847 when an application form it was received to erect bath sheds etc. on the Roodee. This was refused, but eventually a lease to this committee of a site near the Water Tower was approved by the Council on 10 Aug. 1849

The Baths and Wash-houses Committee was absorbed into the Corporate Estate Committee in Nov. 1871 and this committee in turn was absorbed by the Improvement Committee in Nov. 1877. The baths at the Water Tower were described as both swimming and shower baths in the Cheshire Post Office Directory, 1878, but Kelly's Cheshire Directory, 1892 refers only to a public floating bath open during the Summer