From Roman times to the present day, Buxton's natural spa water has been an important asset of the town. The first Roman settlers bathed here, and the water is now a major part of the local economy - with Buxton Mineral Water being sold all over the World. The Roman Legions arrived in AD 70. Finding a warm spring, they built a fort and the settlement of 'Aquae Arnametiae' was born. The Roman name means 'The Waters of The Goddess of The Grove', and made the town only one of two in Roman Britain to carry the name 'Aqua' - the other being Bath (‘Aqua Sulis’).

The water itself endures a long journey. It falls as rain onto the surrounding Peak District hills where it soaks into the ground and through a fissured limestone aquifer. This is at an angle, and takes the water deep under the town. Above the limestone aquifer is a layer of impermeable volcanic rock, which keeps the water within the limestone, and protects it from surface contamination. Further down, a geological fault in the rock allows the water upwards to the spring outlet, where it emerges at a constant 27.5°C. It has been estimated that this process takes at least 5000 years from rainfall to spa water.

In mediaeval times a small religious establishment grew up around the spa and Buxton became a place of pilgrimage, as people came to take the waters for their supposed healing power. The dissolution of the monasteries saw these lands and the spa pass into the hands of the Cavendish family, later to become the Dukes of Devonshire. The Tudor period saw the spa flourish, attracting many famous visitors including William Cecil, Lord Burghley and the Earls of Essex, Sussex and Leicester. Probably the most famous to make the journey was Mary, Queen of Scots. Whilst a prisoner at Chatsworth, she came to Buxton on several occasions in the hope that the water would cure her painful rheumatism. While in Buxton, she stayed at The Old Hall Hotel, where she scratched a farewell message to the town into a window with a diamond ring.

In the late 18th century the Dukes of Devonshire became extremely rich through their lead and copper mining ventures and the 5th Duke decided to expand the spa and build a set of public buildings to match those at fashionable Bath. He built the Crescent and Assembly Rooms as a hotel and meeting place for the benefit wealthy spa visitors, plus a fine set of stables on the hillside above. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the spa had its heyday, fuelled by the coming of the railways. These brought ever-increasing numbers of visitors to take the waters and Buxton became a fashionable place to live. The period after the First World War saw a gradually decline in the importance of the spa and the Thermal Baths closed in the 1960s.

For over 100 years Buxton's spa water has been bottled and sold and the bottling and distribution of the water is now a worldwide business carried out by the Buxton Mineral Water Company, a division of Perrier. However Buxton spa water is also freely available from the St. Anne's Well opposite the Crescent.