A new luxury spa has opened in a Port Talbot front room, offering an exclusive mineral bath containing sulphur, cadmium and some brown sludge found oozing out of a hole round the back of Tesco.
The Tŷ Bach Wellness Retreat welcomed its first customer yesterday, marking what its owner described as “a new chapter in relaxation for anyone who can fit in the tub”.
The flagship treatment, the Afan Valley Mineral Immersion Experience, costs £89 and involves sitting in a small wooden barrel while a woman called Pat periodically tops it up from the kettle.
Its first customer, who wished to remain anonymous, booked the experience after his wife said he needed to do something for himself.
“I was thinking of getting a shed,” said Briand Davies, 62 from Tai Bach, “But she’d already paid the deposit.”
Spa founder and wellness director Beverley explained that every ingredient had been carefully selected for its local provenance.
“People pay hundreds of pounds to sit in volcanic mud in Iceland,” she said. “We’ve got perfectly good sludge here. It’s this attitude that nothing from Port Talbot is good enough that really holds us back.”
Asked about the precise composition of the bath, Beverley confirmed it contained sulphur, cadmium and “other things we’re waiting to hear back about”.
“The laboratory rang three times this morning. They’re obviously excited.”
The brown sludge is collected fresh each morning using a dustpan and transported to the spa in an old Celebrations tub.
“We believe in complete transparency,” Beverley added. “Obviously you can’t see through the water, but we’re very open about where we found it.”
The spa’s interior has been designed around the concept of “authentic Welsh domestic tranquillity”, featuring an occasional table, one good chair and a gas bill tucked behind the clock on the mantlepiece.
Ambient sounds are provided by next door’s television.
Guests can upgrade to the steam room experience, which takes place in the kitchen while Pat boils the potatoes. The cold plunge is available out the back in an empty wheelie bin. The plunge pool is unavailable on Tuesdays as it’s bin day.
Brian described his first treatment as “certainly an experience”, although he questioned whether the bath was big enough.
“They said it was full-body immersion, but you have to choose which bit.”
After forty minutes, staff helped him out, rubbed him down with the guest towel and advised him to “take things slowly”, particularly past anything magnetic.
Beverley says bookings are already flooding in, with strong interest in the couples package.
“That’s £160,” she explained. “You take turns, obviously. We’re a luxury spa, not made of barrels.”
Brian has yet to decide whether he’ll return.
“I got home and the wife asked how it was,” he said. “I told her I’d had a relaxing mineral bath.”
“Then she made me have a bath.”
