Everything about Bath Somerset totally explained
Bath is a
city in
Somerset in the
south west of
England. It is situated west of
London and south-east of
Bristol. The
population of the city is about 80,000. It was granted
city status by
Royal Charter by Queen
Elizabeth I in 1590, and was made a
county borough in 1889 which gave it
administrative independence from its county,
Somerset. The city became part of
Avon when that
county was created in 1974. Since 1996, when Avon was abolished, Bath has been the principal centre of the
unitary authority of
Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), a part of the wider Somerset
county.
The city was founded, among surrounding hills, in the valley of the
River Avon around
naturally-occurring hot springs where the
Romans built
baths and a temple,
and was dedicated to the goddess
Sulis, whom the
Romans identified with
Minerva; however, the name Sulis continued to be used after the Roman invasion, leading to the town's
Roman name of
Aquae Sulis (literally, "the waters of Sulis"). Messages to her scratched onto metal, known as
curse tablets, have been recovered from the Sacred Spring by archaeologists.
These curse tablets were written in
Latin, and usually laid curses on people by whom the writer felt they'd been wronged. For example, if a citizen had his clothes stolen at the baths, he'd write a curse, naming the suspects, on a tablet to be read by the Goddess Sulis Minerva.
The temple was constructed in 60–70 AD and the bathing complex was gradually built up over the next 300 years.
During the
Roman occupation of Britain, and possibly on the instructions of
Emperor Claudius,
engineers drove oak piles into the mud to provide a stable foundation and surrounded the spring with an irregular stone chamber lined with
lead. In the 2nd century, the spring was enclosed within a wooden
barrel-vaulted building,
The city was given defensive walls, probably in the 3rd century.
After the Roman withdrawal in the first decade of the 5th century, the baths fell into disrepair and were eventually lost due to silting up.
Post-Roman and Saxon
Bath may have been the site of the
Battle of Mons Badonicus (c. 500 AD), where
King Arthur is said to have defeated the
Saxons, although this is disputed.
The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions Bath falling to the
West Saxons in 577 after the
Battle of Deorham. The
Anglo-Saxons called the town Baðum, Baðan or Baðon, meaning "at the baths," and this was the source of the present name.
King Offa of
Mercia gained control of this monastery in 781 and rebuilt the church, which was dedicated to
St. Peter. By the 9th century the old Roman street pattern had been lost and Bath had become a royal possession, with
King Alfred laying out the town afresh, leaving its south-eastern quadrant as the abbey precinct.
Edgar of England was crowned king of England in Bath Abbey in 973.
Norman, Medieval and Tudor
King
William Rufus granted the city to a royal physician,
John of Tours, who became Bishop of
Wells and Abbot of Bath in 1088. It was papal policy for bishops to move to more urban seats, and he translated his own from Wells to Bath. He planned and began a much larger church as his cathedral, to which was attached a priory, with the bishop's palace beside it.
Oliver King, Bishop of Bath and Wells, decided in 1500 to rebuild it on a smaller scale. The new church was completed just a few years before Bath Priory was
dissolved in 1539 by
Henry VIII. The abbey church was allowed to become derelict before being restored as the city's parish church in the
Elizabethan period, when the city experienced a revival as a
spa. The
baths were improved and the city began to attract the aristocracy. Bath was granted
city status by
Royal Charter by Queen
Elizabeth I in 1590.
Thomas Guidott, who had been a student of chemistry and medicine at
Wadham College Oxford, moved to Bath and set up practice in 1668. He became interested in the curative properties of the waters and he wrote
A discourse of Bathe, and the hot waters there. Also, Some Enquiries into the Nature of the water in 1676. This brought the health-giving properties of the hot mineral waters to the attention of the country and soon the aristocracy started to arrive to partake in them.
Several areas of the city underwent development during the
Stuart period, and this increased during
Georgian times in response to the increasing number of visitors to the spa and resort town who required accommodation. The architects
John Wood the elder and his son
John Wood the younger laid out the new quarters in streets and squares, the identical façades of which gave an impression of palatial scale and classical decorum. Much of the creamy gold
Bath stone which was used for construction throughout the city, was obtained from the
limestone Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines, which were owned by
Ralph Allen (1694–1764). Allen, in order to advertise the quality of his quarried limestone, commissioned the elder John Wood to build him a country house on his
Prior Park estate between the city and the mines.
Late modern
The population of the city had reached 40,020 by the time of the 1801 census, making it one of the largest cities in Britain.
William Thomas Beckford bought a house in
Lansdown Crescent in 1822, eventually buying a further two houses in the crescent to form his residence. Having acquired all the land between his home and the top of
Lansdown Hill, he created a garden over half a mile in length and built
Beckford's Tower at the top.
Emperor
Haile Selassie I of
Ethiopia spent the four years of his exile, from 1936 to 1940, at
Fairfield House in Bath. During
World War II, between the evening of
25 April and the early morning of
27 April 1942, Bath suffered three air raids in reprisal for
RAF raids on the
German cities of
Lübeck and
Rostock, part of the
Luftwaffe campaign popularly known as the
Baedeker Blitz. Over 400 people were killed, and more than 19,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Houses in the
Royal Crescent,
Circus and
Paragon were burnt out along with the Assembly Rooms, while the south side of
Queen Square was destroyed. All have since been reconstructed, and regeneration work is continuing. Since 2000, developments have included the
Bath Spa, Southgate and the Bath Western Riverside project.
Governance
Historically part of the county of
Somerset, Bath was made a
county borough in 1889 and hence independent of the newly created
administrative Somerset
county council. Bath became part of
Avon when that
non-metropolitan county was created in 1974. Since the abolition of Avon in 1996, Bath has been the main centre of the
unitary authority of
Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES). Bath remains, however, in the
ceremonial county of Somerset.
The City of Bath's ceremonial functions, including the
mayoralty – which can be traced back to 1230 – and control of the
coat of arms, are now maintained by the
Charter Trustees of the City of Bath. The coat of arms includes two silver strips, which represent the
River Avon and the hot springs. The sword of
St. Paul is a link to
Bath Abbey. The supporters, a
lion and a
bear, stand on a bed of
acorns, a link to
Bladud, the subject of the Legend of Bath. The knight's helmet indicates a municipality and the
crown is that of
King Edgar.
Before the
Reform Act 1832 Bath elected two members to the
unreformed House of Commons. Bath now has a single
parliamentary constituency, with
Liberal Democrat Don Foster as
Member of Parliament. His election was a notable result of the
1992 general election, as
Chris Patten, the previous Member (and a
Cabinet Minister) played a major part, as
Chairman of the Conservative Party, in getting the government of
John Major re-elected, but failed to defend his marginal seat in Bath. Don Foster has been re-elected as the MP for Bath in every election since. His majority was significantly reduced from over 9,000 in both the 1997 and 2001 general elections to 4,638 in 2005.
The
electoral wards of the
Bath and North East Somerset unitary authority within Bath are:
- Abbey, Bathwick, Combe Down, Kingsmead, Lambridge, Lansdown, Lyncombe, Newbridge, Odd Down, Oldfield, Southdown, Twerton, Walcot, Westmoreland, Weston and Widcombe.
Geography
Physical geography
Bath is at the bottom of the Avon Valley, and near the southern edge of the
Cotswolds, a range of
limestone hills designated as an
Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The hills that surround and make up the city have a maximum altitude of on the
Lansdown plateau. It has an area of .
The surrounding hills give Bath its steep streets and make its buildings appear to climb the slopes. The
flood plain of the River Avon, which runs through the centre of the city, here has an altitude of . The river, once an unnavigable series of
braided streams broken up by
swamps and
ponds, has been managed by
weirs into a single channel. Nevertheless, periodic flooding, which shortened the life of many buildings in the lowest part of the city, was normal until major flood control works in the 1970s.
The water which bubbles up from the ground, as
geothermal springs, fell as rain on the
Mendip Hills. It percolates down through limestone aquifers to a depth of between and metres where geothermal energy raises the water temperature to between and . Under pressure, the heated water rises to the surface along fissures and faults in the limestone. This process is similar to an artificial one known as
Enhanced Geothermal System which also makes use of the high pressures and temperatures below the Earth's crust. Hot water at a temperature of rises here at the rate of every day, from a geological fault (the Pennyquick fault). In 1983 a new spa water bore-hole was sunk, providing a clean and safe supply of spa water for drinking in the Pump Room. There is no universal definition to distinguish a
hot spring from another
geothermal spring, though by several
definitions, the Bath springs can be considered the only hot springs in the UK. Three of these springs feed the
thermal baths.
Climate
Along with the rest of
South West England, Bath has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of England. The annual mean temperature is approximately and shows a seasonal and a
diurnal variation, but due to the modifying effect of the sea the range is less than in most other parts of the UK. January is the coldest month with mean minimum temperatures between and . July and August are the warmest months in the region with mean daily maxima around .
Demography
The city of Bath has a
population of about 80,000.
The district is largely
Christian at 71%, with no other religion reaching more than 0.5%. These figures generally compare with the national averages, though the
non-religious, at 19.5%, are significantly more prevalent than the national 14.8%. 7.4% of the population describe themselves as "not healthy" in the last 12 months, compared with a national average of 9.2%; nationally 18.2% of people describe themselves as having a long-term illness, in Bath it's 15.8%. the
Royal Crescent,
The Circus and
Pulteney Bridge.
Today, Bath has five
theatres –
Bath Theatre Royal,
Ustinov Studio,
the egg, the
Rondo Theatre, and the
Mission Theatre – and attracts internationally renowned companies and directors, including an annual season by
Sir Peter Hall. The city also has a long-standing musical tradition;
Bath Abbey is home to the
Klais Organ and is the largest concert venue in the city, with about 20 concerts and 26 organ recitals each year. Another important concert venue is the Forum, a 1,700-seat
art deco building which originated as a cinema. The city holds the
Bath International Music Festival and Mozartfest every year. Other festivals include the annual
Bath Film Festival,
Bath Literature Festival, the
Bath Fringe Festival and the
Bath Beer Festival, and the Bach Festivals which occur at two and a half year intervals.
The city is home to the
Victoria Art Gallery, the
Museum of East Asian Art, and
Holburne Museum of Art, numerous commercial art galleries and antique shops, as well as numerous museums, among them
Bath Postal Museum, the
Fashion Museum (which was previously known as the Museum of Costume), the
Jane Austen Centre, the
Herschel Museum of Astronomy and the
Roman Baths. The
Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, now in Queen Square, and founded in 1824 on the base of a 1777 Society for the encouragement of Agriculture, Planting, Manufactures, Commerce and the Fine Arts, has an important collection and holds a rich and popular programme of talks and discussions.
Bath in the arts
During the 18th century
Thomas Gainsborough and Sir
Thomas Lawrence lived and worked in Bath.
William Friese-Greene began experimenting with celluloid and motion pictures in his studio in Bath in the 1870s, developing some of the earliest movie camera technology there. He is credited as the inventor of cinematography.
Jane Austen lived in the city from 1801 with her father, mother and sister Cassandra, and the family resided in the city at four successive addresses until 1806. However, Jane Austen never liked the city, and wrote to her sister Cassandra, "It will be two years tomorrow since we left Bath for Clifton, with what happy feelings of escape." Despite these feelings, Bath has honoured her name with the
Jane Austen Centre and a city walk. Austen's later
Northanger Abbey and
Persuasion are largely set in the city and feature descriptions of taking the waters, social life, and music recitals. Taking the waters is also described in
Charles Dickens' novel
Pickwick Papers in which Pickwick's servant,
Sam Weller, comments that the water has "a very strong flavour o' warm flat irons", while the
Royal Crescent is the venue for a chase between two of the characters, Dowler and Winkle.
Moyra Caldecott's novel
The Waters of Sul is set in Roman Bath in 72 AD.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play
The Rivals takes place in the city, as does
Roald Dahl's chilling
short-story,
The Landlady.
Many films and television programmes have been filmed in Bath including: the 2004
film of
Thackeray's
Vanity Fair,
The Duchess (2008),
The Elusive Pimpernel (1950) and
The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953).
In August 2003 the
Three Tenors sang at a special concert to mark the opening of the
Thermae Bath Spa, a new hot water
spa in Bath City Centre; delays to the project meant the spa actually opened three years later on
August 7 2006.
Parks
The city has several
public parks, the main one being
Royal Victoria Park, which is a short walk from the centre of the city. It was opened in 1830 by an 11-year-old
Princess Victoria, and was the first park to carry her name. The park is overlooked by the
Royal Crescent and consists of with a variety of attractions. These include a
skateboard ramp,
tennis courts,
bowling, a putting green and a 12- and 18-hole
golf course, a pond, open air concerts, and a popular children's play area. Much of its area is
lawn; a notable feature is the way in which a
ha-ha segregates it from the
Royal Crescent, while giving the impression to a viewer from the Crescent of a greensward uninterrupted across the Park down to Royal Avenue. It has received a "
Green Flag award", the national standard for parks and green spaces in England and Wales, and is registered by
English Heritage as a
Park of National Historic Importance. The and a botanical garden were formed in 1887 and contain one of the finest collections of plants on
limestone in the
West country. The replica of a Roman Temple was used at the
British Empire Exhibition at
Wembley in 1924. In 1987 the gardens were extended to include the Great Dell, a disused quarry that was formally part of the park, which contains a large collection of
conifers.
Other parks in Bath include: Alexandra Park, which crowns a hill and overlooks the city; Parade Gardens, along the river front near the Abbey in the centre of the city; Sydney Gardens, known as a pleasure-garden in the 18th century; Henrietta Park; Hedgemead Park; and Alice Park. Jane Austen wrote of Sydney Gardens that "It would be pleasant to be near the Sydney Gardens. We could go into the Labyrinth every day." Alexandra, Alice and Henrietta parks were built into the growing city among the housing developments. There is also a linear park following the old
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway line.
Food
Bath is linked to a variety of foods that are distinctive in their association with the city.
Sally Lunn Buns (a type of
teacake) have long been baked in Bath. They were first mentioned by that name in verses printed in a local newspaper, the
Bath Chronicle, in 1772. At that time they were eaten hot at public breakfasts in the city's Spring Gardens. They can be eaten with sweet or savoury toppings. These are sometimes confused with the
Bath Bun which are smaller, round, very sweet, very rich buns that were associated with the city following
The Great Exhibition. Bath Buns were originally topped with crushed
comfits created by dipping
caraway seeds repeatedly in boiling sugar; but today seeds are added to a 'London Bath Bun' (a reference to the bun's promotion and sale at the Great Exhibition). The seeds may be replaced by crushed sugar granules or 'nibs'.
Bath has also lent its name to one other distinctive recipe –
Bath Olivers – the dry baked biscuit invented by Dr William Oliver, physician to the
Mineral Water Hospital in 1740. Oliver was an early anti-obesity campaigner and the author of a
"Practical Essay on the Use and Abuse of warm Bathing in Gluty Cases". It is still available from a stall in the daily covered market. Although there's a brewery named
Bath Ales, located a few miles away in
Warmley,
Abbey Ales are brewed in the city.
Sport
Bath Rugby is a
rugby union team which is currently in the
Guinness Premiership league and coached by Steve Meehan. It plays in black, blue and white kit at the
Recreation Ground in the city, where it has been since the late 19th century, following its establishment in 1865. The team's first major honour was winning the
John Player Cup four years consecutively from 1984 until 1987. whilst Team Bath were promoted the following year after winning the
Southern League Premier Division playoffs. In 2002, Team Bath became the first university team to enter the
FA Cup in 120 years, and advanced through four qualifying rounds to the first round proper. The university's team was established in 1999, while the city team has existed since before 1908 (when it entered the
Western League).
The
Bath Half Marathon is run annually through the city streets, with over 10,000 runners. Bath also has a thriving
cycling community, with places for biking including
Royal Victoria Park, 'The Tumps' in Odd Down/east, the jumps on top of
Lansdown, and Prior Park. Places for biking near Bath include
Brown's Folly in
Batheaston and Box Woods, in
Box. Bath is also the home of the Bath American Football Club, which has been playing
American Football in the city since 2001.
TeamBath is the umbrella name for all of the
University of Bath sports teams, including the aforementioned football club. Other sports for which TeamBath is noted are
athletics,
badminton,
basketball,
bob skeleton,
bobsleigh,
hockey,
judo,
modern pentathlon,
netball,
rugby union,
swimming,
tennis,
triathlon and
volleyball. The City of Bath Triathlon takes place annually at the university.
Industry
Today, Bath's once-important manufacturing sector is much diminished, but it has notable software, publishing and service-oriented industries, in addition to tourism. Important economic sectors in Bath include education and health (30,000 jobs), retail, tourism and leisure (14,000 jobs) and business and professional services (10,000 jobs). Its main employers are the
National Health Service, the two universities and the Bath and North East Somerset Council, as well as the
Ministry of Defence, although a number of MOD offices formerly in Bath have now moved to
Bristol. Growing employment sectors include information and communication technologies and creative and cultural industries where Bath is one of the recognised national centres for publishing, The city contains over 400 retail shops, 50% being run by independent specialist retailers, and around 100 restaurants and cafes which are primarily supported by tourism. There are also two campsites located on the western edge of the city. The city also contains about 100 restaurants, and a similar number of
public houses and
bars. Several companies offer
open-top bus tours around the city, as well as tours on foot and on the river. Since 2006, with the opening of Thermae Bath Spa, the city has attempted to recapture its historical position as the only town in the
United Kingdom offering visitors the opportunity to bathe in naturally-heated spring waters.
Twinned towns
Bath has four
twinned towns:
Aix-en-Provence, France
Alkmaar, Netherlands
Braunschweig, Germany
Kaposvár, Hungary
Beppu, Ōita Prefecture, Japan
Bath also has a partnership agreement with Beppu, Japan and is a sister city to Manly, New South Wales, Australia. National Express operates coach services from Bath to a number of cities. Internally, Bath has a network of bus routes run by First Group, with services to surrounding towns and cities. There is one other company running open top double-decker bus tours around the city.
The city is connected to Bristol and the sea by the River Avon, navigable via locks by small boats. The river was connected to the River Thames and London by the Kennet and Avon Canal in 1810 via Bath Locks; this waterway – closed for many years, but restored in the last years of the 20th century – is now popular with narrow boat users. Bath is on National Cycle Route 4, with one of Britain's first cycleways, the Bristol & Bath Railway Path, to the west, and an eastern route toward London on the canal towpath. Although Bath doesn't have an airport, the city is about from Bristol International Airport.
Bath is served by the Bath Spa railway station (designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel), which has regular connections to London Paddington, Bristol Temple Meads, Cardiff Central, Swansea, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance (see Great Western Main Line), and also Westbury, Warminster, Salisbury, Southampton, Portsmouth and Brighton (see Wessex Main Line). Services are provided by First Great Western. There is a suburban station on the main line, Oldfield Park, which has a limited commuter service to Bristol as well as other destinations. Green Park station was once operated by the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, whose line (always steam driven) climbed over the Mendips and served many towns and villages on its run to Bournemouth; this example of an English rural line was closed by Beeching in March 1966, with few remaining signs of its existence, but its Bath station building survives and now houses a number of shops.
Architecture
There are many Roman archaeological sites throughout the central area of the city, but most of them are around below the present city street level. Around the hot springs, Roman foundations, pillar bases, and baths can still be seen, however all the stonework above the level of the baths is from more recent periods.
Bath Abbey was a Norman church built on earlier foundations, although the present building dates from the early 16th century and shows a late Perpendicular style with flying buttresses and crocketed pinnacles decorating a crenellated and pierced parapet. The choir and transepts have a fan vault by Robert and William Vertue. The nave was given a matching vault in the 19th century. The building is lit by 52 windows.
Most buildings in Bath are made from the local, golden-coloured Bath Stone, and many date from the 18th and 19th century. The dominant style of architecture in Bath is Georgian; this evolved from the Palladian revival style which became popular in the early 18th century. Many of the prominent architects of the day were employed in the development of the city. The original purpose of much of Bath's architecture is concealed by the honey-coloured classical façades; in an era before the advent of the luxury hotel, these apparently elegant residences were frequently purpose-built lodging houses, where visitors could hire a room, a floor, or (according to their means) an entire house for the duration of their visit, and be waited on by the house's communal servants.
"The Circus" consists of three long, curved terraces designed by the elder John Wood to form a circular space or theatre intended for civic functions and games. The games give a clue to the design, the inspiration behind which was the Colosseum in Rome. Like the Colosseum, the three façades have a different order of architecture on each floor: Doric on the ground level, then Ionic on the piano nobile and finishing with Corinthian on the upper floor, the style of the building thus becoming progressively more ornate as it rises. But all isn't what it seems; while Wood designed the great curved façade of what appears to be about 30 houses with Ionic columns on a rusticated ground floor, that was the extent of his input. Each purchaser bought a certain length of the façade, and then employed their own architect to build a house to their own specifications behind it; hence what appears to be two houses is sometimes one. This system of town planning is betrayed at the rear of the crescent: while the front is completely uniform and symmetrical, the rear is a mixture of differing roof heights, juxtapositions and fenestration. This "Queen Anne fronts and Mary-Anne backs" architecture occurs repeatedly in Bath.
Around 1770 the neoclassical architect Robert Adam designed Pulteney Bridge, using as the prototype for the three-arched bridge spanning the Avon an original, but unused, design by Palladio for the Rialto Bridge in Venice. Thus, Pulteney Bridge became not just a means of crossing the river, but also a shopping arcade. Along with the Rialto Bridge, is one of the very few surviving bridges in Europe to serve this dual purpose. Baldwin rose rapidly, becoming a leader in Bath's architectural history. In 1776 he was made the chief City Surveyor, and in 1780 became Bath City Architect.
Education
Bath has two universities. The University of Bath was established in 1966 and has grown to become a leading university in the United Kingdom. The university is known, academically, for the physical sciences, mathematics, architecture, management and technology.
Bath Spa University was first granted degree-awarding powers in 1992 as a university college (Bath Spa University College), before being granted university status in August 2005. It has schools in the following subject areas: Art and Design, Education, English and Creative Studies, Historical and Cultural Studies, Music and the Performing Arts, and Social Sciences. Special needs education is provided by Three Ways School.
Further Information
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