Holt, United Kingdom

Holt remained in the possession of Shaftesbury Abbey until somewhen between 1242 and 1252, when the manor was granted to the de Holt family with Robert de Holt being given 'free warren in the demesne lands of his manor'. He was also granted a license to hold a fair at the manor each Saint Catherine's Day (25 November). The manor's deer park, established by 1316, is thought to have encompassed much of the modern village.

In 1344, the manor was conveyed to William Edington, later Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor of England. The extant parish church tower dates from this period. Poll tax records from 1377 record 44 people over the age of 14 paying poll tax, and provides an estimate of the population of Holt at this time of between 72–99 people. The number of tax-payers is low considering that at least 32 houses are also recorded. Wealthier inhabitants are assumed to have avoided paying the tax.

Ownership of the manor changed again in 1426, passing to the Lisle family, in whose possession it would be held for the next 320 years.

When a mineral water spring was discovered in 1688 at what would become known as Holt Spa, Lady Lisle would be instrumental in the promotion of the waters to high society. At least four wells – The Old, The New, The Great Nose, and Harris's – were sunk, and under the guidance of the local nobility and clergy, the operation became a commercial enterprise from 1723. The proprietor, Henry Eyre, claimed in 1731 that the waters had the ability to cure King’s Evil, ulcers, leprosy, scrophula, piles, itching of the skin, colic, giddiness of the head and other ailments. Eyre was successfully exporting bottled spa water to London.

By the 1780s, a resort had been established in Holt: the Spa House provided treatments, and the Great House offered lodgings for guests who took the waters. Holt faced competition from the much more popular spa at Bath but is said to have been frequented by the lesser gentry and to have enjoyed a 'summer season', with numerous Londoners entering the parish burial registers in the late 18th century providing some testament to its popularity.

By 1790, the heyday of the spa resort was over. Holt Waters remained for sale until 1815; around that time mineral springs were discovered nearby at Melksham, and another small spa was developed there.

The Spa House was incorporated into a bedding factory on the site, and later demolished. A pair of Tuscan columns from the Spa House entrance and a well pump were saved from demolition and incorporated in the new factory building. This memorial, together with a marble tablet dedicated to Lady Lisle and the Reverend John Lewis, whose patronage made the wells famous from 1720, are all that remain of the spa. Holt Water was analysed in 1933 and found to be very cloudy and quite unsuitable for drinking.

The Great House became a short-lived girls' school for day students and boarders, then from 1794 a boys' boarding school. By 1821, the building had been divided into tenements with seventeen families living there. In 1868 it was advertised for sale and subsequently became part of Beaven's leather dressing factory. It reverted to tenements and was demolished in 1957 as unsafe and incapable of economic repair. The site is now home to a light industrial estate.

From the fourteenth century, cloth-making was a major aspect of the economy of the village and the surrounding area. Of particular note was the woollen mill in nearby Staverton. By the seventeenth century, there were numerous weavers in Holt. In 1703, the clothier John Phelps bought property and opened a dye-works and workshops at what is now The Courts. This had expanded under new ownership by the end of the eighteenth century to become a five-story factory with a large water wheel and steam engine. The factory expanded further but was a casualty of the collapse of the English woollen industry in the nineteenth century and was demolished in 1890.

Members of the Beaven family started a leather dressing factory at Holt in the 1770s. They had previously been woolstaplers and fellmongers. The company, later called J. & T. Beaven Ltd, also processed wool, manufactured gloves, and processed sheepskins into chamois leather until sometime after 1970. During the Second World War, the Beavens held contracts to produce linings for flying jackets and gloves for the RAF. Since 1995, the company has existed as an Anglo-European wholesaler of car care products, including chamois leather, but manufacturing in Holt ended in 1990. The factory site has been redeveloped for mixed residential and commercial use.