By the 1520s the spring was dedicated to St Anne (mother of the Virgin Mary) and the curative powers of the waters from the well were reported.

In the late 17th-century Cornelius White operated bathing facilities at the hot spring at the site of the Buxton Old Hall.

"In 1521 Sir Henry Willoughby made the first known reference associating St Anne with the healing powers of the well's waters.

[9] During Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries, Thomas Cromwell closed St Ann's Well in 1538, ordering it to be "locked up and sealed".

[1] In 1572 Dr John Jones from Derby wrote the first medical book (dedicated to the Earl of Shrewsbury) about Buxton's waters entitled The Benefit of the Auncient Bathes of Buckstones, which cureth most grievous Sickness.

"He wrote about St Ann's Well (one of the 'two fonts'):"The Sun burnt clouds but glimmer to the fight, when at famed Buxton’s hot bath we alight unto St. Ann the Fountain sacred is: With waters hot and cold its sources rise, And in its Sulphur-veins there’s medicine lies.

Sir Thomas Delves built an arch over the spring of St Ann's Well in 1709, in thanks for his successful recuperation and in order to protect the quality of the water.

When the earlier wall around the well was demolished to make way for the arch, several Roman leaden cisterns and various utensils were discovered around the foundations.

[15][16] Buxton's development as a Victorian spa town centered on the reputed healing powers of its natural mineral baths.

The Buxton Bath Charity and numerous independent establishments offered hydropathic treatments using the thermal spring waters.

Dr William Henry Robertson wrote the definitive guide to the Buxton waters, with its analysis of their medicinal properties.

The building (designed by Henry Currey) was a gift to the town by the 8th Duke of Devonshire, to safeguard the free public access to the water.

[18] It is made of ashlar gritstone with a brass lion's head spout pouring water into a marble trough.

The London Morning Advertiser on Tuesday 17 April 1855 carried a front page advert for:"Buxton Mineral Waters – Bottled by authority at St. Ann’s Springs.

In 2012 it opened its new bottling plant at Waterswallows, with water piped from the original source at St Ann's spring two miles away.