Welcome to Bath

Bath lies on the River Avon, 12 miles south east of Bristol (100 miles west of London), amongst the rolling hills of England’s West Country. The surrounding countryside, which flows downwards from the gentle Cotswold Hills to the north, is the setting for stately mansions, hospitable villages and inns as well as the world famous Stonehenge to the southeast. Bath itself is considered to be amongst England’s most beautiful cities, with Roman, Medieval and Georgian architecture all adding to its unique character. Bath is the only British city accorded World Heritage Status.

How long there has been a settlement at Bath is open to debate. Certainly Bath’s origins are mysterious. These origins are centred around the three thermal springs which surface in today’s city centre. Daily one quarter of a million gallons of water rise from a depth of about 10,000 feet at a temperature of 46 C. The origins of the water are a mystery: it is believed to originate from rainwater which fell on the Mendip Hills between 18,000 and 78,000 BC. But there are other theories of varying credibility.

One of the least credible but most interesting is associated with the legendary Celtic King Bladud, son of King Ludhudibras and father of King Lear. In 863 BC Bladud became the ninth king of a tribe of Britons. He was considered a wise king, having studied in Athens and is credited with founding a university at Stamford. At Bath he created the springs through the practice of necromancy, and beside them founded a temple which was dedicated to the deity Sul.

If this legend is too far fetched for you, other accounts tell of how Bladud was merely cured of his leprosy at Bath. Whether a temple was really built or not is unknown. Certainly it would be fair to assume that a location of such a striking natural phenomenon and a place with connections to a famed king would be revered by the Celts.

We are on more solid ground when we talk of the Roman origins of Bath. Around 50 AD the Romans built a large temple complex around the site which they dedicated to their goddess of wisdom and healing, Minerva. However, perhaps as an act of diplomacy, the town which grew up around the springs was named Aquae Sulis, the waters of Sul. The Romans also built a public baths. After Roman withdrawal from the British Isles in the early 5th century the site fell into disrepair. Nonetheless, Bath has some of the finest examples of Roman architecture and engineering visible anywhere in the British Isles.

Bath in the early middle ages was a site of decline but also of rebirth. Shortly after Roman withdrawal the Saxons invaded large parts of the British Isles and took Bath as one of their prizes at the end of the 6th century. In the late 9th century Alfred the Great stimulated the town’s growth, selecting it as the location for the development of a fortified town, or ‘burgh;’ constructed throughout his realm to aid its defence against the Danes. By the end of the 10th century Bath had gone some way to regaining its former importance: it was here that King Edgar, considered to be the first king of all England, was crowned in 973 AD.

Later-medieval Bath was dominated by a great abbey built in the late 12th century. In 1499 Bishop King instigated the development of today’s building, considered to be the last of England’s great mediaeval churches. That is despite the fact that most of the abbey’s buildings were demolished after it was closed by Henry VIII, in1539. Since then it has functioned merely as an extraordinary parish church.

In the 16th and 17th centuries Bath suffered another decline. Its economy was largely based on the arrival of sick, often poor, people who would come to seek remedy to their ills. There were some exceptions: in the early 17th century Anne of Denmark, wife of James I, came to Bath to seek remedy for dropsy. Bath’s decline would end in the 18th century largely due to the work of one man: Richard ‘Beau’ Nash (1674-1762) who became Master of Ceremonies.

The architect John Wood was employed in a number of ambitious projects, the most famous of which being The Circus (built 1754-60). Improvements continued after Nash’s death; Pulteney Bridge was built in 1774, one of only 4 bridges in Europe which accommodates shops and one of Bath’s most impressive projects of the later half of the century. By 1800 Bath was a genteel retreat from the growing cities. One admirer of the town was the author Jane Austen who made it her home between 1801 and 1806 and would frequently visit Bath throughout her life. The Jane Austen Centre, on Gay Street, celebrates the connections between the author with the town and the influence Bath had on her writing.

Jane Austen would notice few changes in today’s Bath. She would notice the railway (which arrived in 1840), electric lighting (1890) and Henrietta Park (opened 1897). She may also have noticed improvements in sanitation and the absence of a number of buildings which were bombed during WWII. Today’s Bath may be bigger (pop. 83,000) but essentially it remains the beautiful retreat that was Richard Nash’s dream.