Encyclopedia
Bath is a
city in
South West England most famous for its baths fed by three
hot springs. It is situated 159 km west of
central London and 21 km southeast of
Bristol. It is also called
Bath Spa.
The city is founded on the only naturally-ocurring thermal spa in the United Kingdom. It was first documented as a
Roman spa, although tradition suggests that it was founded earlier.
The waters from its spring were believed to be a cure for many afflictions. From
Elizabethan to
Georgian times it was a resort city for the wealthy. As a result of its popularity during the latter period, the city contains many fine examples of
Georgian architecture, most notably the
Royal Crescent. The city has a population of over 80,000 and is a
World Heritage Site.
Geography
Situation and transport
Bath is located at . It is approximately 25 kilometres south-east of the larger city and port of
Bristol, to which it is linked by the
A4 road, and is a similar distance south of the
M4 motorway. Its main railway station,
Bath Spa, lies on the
Great Western Railway, the
main line between
Bristol and
London, as well as the line linking Cardiff with Portsmouth.
Bath 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 among users of
narrow boats, and was historically an important water route to London.
Physical geography
Bath is centred on the bottom of the Avon Valley, located at 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 238
metres on the Lansdown plateau. It has an area of 29 km² .
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, is at an altitude of 17 metres. 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 was normal until major flood control works in the 1970s; this shortened the life of many buildings in the lowest part of the city.
Climate
The climate of Bath is temperate, although significantly warmer than some other locations at a similar latitude due to the warming influence of the
Gulf Stream. It is on average drier and warmer than more northerly parts of the
United Kingdom. The prevailing winds are south-westerly, from the North Atlantic Current. More than 50% of the days are overcast. There are few natural hazards, although there can be strong winds and floods, especially in winter.
In 2003 the annual mean temperature was 10.3
°C, with extremes at 14.2 °C and 6.5 °C . There were 1645 hours of sunshine, and 957 millimetres of rainfall. The temperatures, sunshine duration and rainfall are higher than the United Kingdom averages .
Politics
The
Liberal Democrat Don Foster is the Member of Parliament for
Bath. His election was perhaps the most notable result of the
1992 results, as
Chris Patten, the previous Member , played a major part, as Conservative Party Chairman, 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.
Historically part of the county of
Somerset, Bath came into
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 . Bath's city council was abolished in 1996; its ceremonial functions, including the mayoralty, which can be traced back to 1230, are maintained by the "Charter Trustees", viz. all those B&NES councillors for wards within the city limits. There have been calls to set up a parish council for Bath, but it would be larger than any precedent , and many have argued that it would be impractical.
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 Legend of Bath. The knight's helmet indicates a municipality and the crown is that of
King Edgar, the first king of a united England, who was crowned in Bath in 973 on the site of the current abbey.
Demographics
According to the
UK Government's
2001 census, Bath, combined with the immediate surrounding area, has a population of 169,040, with an average age of 39.9 . According to the same statistics, Bath is overwhelmingly populated by people of a white ethnic background, 97.2%—significantly higher than the national average of 90.9%. Other ethnic groups in Bath, in order of population size, are
multiracial at 1%, Asian at 0.5% and black at 0.5% .
The city 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%. Only 7.4% of the population describe themselves as "not healthy" in the last 12 months, compared to a national average of 9.2%; only 15.8% of the inhabitants say they have had a long-term illness, as against 18.2% nationally.
History
Celtic and Roman
The archaeological evidence shows that the site of the main spring was treated as a shrine by the
Celts, and dedicated to the goddess
Sulis. The Romans probably occupied Bath shortly after their invasion of Britain in 43 AD. They knew it as
Aquae Sulis , identifying the goddess with
Minerva. In Roman times the worship of Sulis continued and messages to her scratched onto metal have been recovered from the Sacred Spring by archaeologists. These are known as . These curse tablets were written in Latin, and usually laid curses on other people, whom they feel had done them wrong. For Example, if a citizen had his clothes stolen at the Baths, he would write a curse on a tablet, to be read by the Goddess Sulis, and also, the "suspected" names would be mentioned.
The corpus from Bath is the most important found in Britain.
During the
Roman period, increasingly grand temples and bathing complexes were built in the area, including the Great Bath. Rediscovered gradually from the 18th century onward, they have become one of the city's main attractions. The city was given defensive walls, probably in the 3rd century. From the later 4th century on, the
Western Roman Empire and its urban life declined. However, while the great
suite of baths was the word the ancient Romans [i] used for the buildings housing the ...
at Bath fell into disrepair, some use of the hot springs continued.
Post-Roman and Saxon
It has been suggested that Bath may have been the site of the
Battle of Mons Badonicus , where
King Arthur is said to have defeated the
Saxons, but this . 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. In 675, Osric, King of the Hwicce, set up a monastic house at Bath, probably using the walled area as its precinct.
King Offa of
Mercia gained control of this monastery in 781 and rebuilt the church, which was dedicated to
St. Peter. Bath had become a royal possession. The old Roman street pattern was by now lost, and
King Alfred laid out the town afresh, leaving its south-eastern quadrant as the abbey precinct.
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, with permission to move the seat of
Somerset from Wells to Bath. Bishop John therefore became the first Bishop of 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. New baths were built around the three springs.
Later bishops preferred Wells, which regained cathedral status jointly with Bath. By the 15th century, Bath Cathedral was badly dilapidated.
Oliver King, Bishop of Bath and Wells, decided in 1500 to rebuild it on a smaller scale. The new cathedral was completed just a few years before Bath Priory was dissolved in 1539. Then
Henry VIII considered the cathedral redundant, and it was allowed to become derelict, before being restored as the city's parish church in the
Elizabethan period, when the city revived as a spa. The baths were improved and the city began to attract the aristocracy in the bathing seasons. Bath was granted
city status in 1590.
17th century
During the
English Civil War the
Battle of Lansdowne was fought on July 5 1643 on the outskirts of Bath.
Sally Lunn, a Hugenot refugee, came to Bath and found work with a baker in Lilliput Alley , creating the now world-famous
18th century
There had been much rebuilding in the
Stuart period, but this was eclipsed by the massive expansion of the city in
Georgian times. The old town within the walls was also largely rebuilt. This was a response to the continuing demand for elegant accommodation for the city's fashionable visitors, for whom Bath had become a pleasure resort as well as a spa. The architects
John Wood the elder and his son
John Wood the younger laid out the new quarters in streets and squares, the identical facades of which gave an impression of palatial scale and classical decorum. The creamy gold of Bath stone further unified the city, much of it obtained from the
limestone Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines under Combe Down, which were owned by
Ralph Allen . The latter, 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. A shrewd politician, he dominated civic affairs and became mayor several times.
The early 18th century saw Bath acquire its first purpose-built theatre, pump room and assembly rooms. Master of Ceremonies Beau Nash, who presided over the city's social life from 1705 until his death in 1761, drew up a code of behaviour for public entertainments. However, the city declined as a fashionable resort in the 19th century.
Bath elected two members to the
Unreformed House of Commons.
20th century
Between the evening of 25 April and the early morning of 27 April 1942 Bath was subjected to three air raids by the
Luftwaffe in reprisal for
RAF raids on the German cities of
Lübeck and
Rostock. The three raids formed part of the Luftwaffe campaign popularly known as the Baedeker Blitz and damaged or destroyed more than 19 000 buildings and killed more than 400 people. Considerable damage was done to noteworthy historical buildings. Houses in the
Royal Crescent, Circus and Paragon were burnt out as were the Assembly Rooms while the south side of Queen Square was destroyed. All have since been reconstructed.
Culture
During the 18th century, Bath was an extremely fashionable cultural hub, attracting the aristocracy and gentry from all over the country. This gave the city the finance and incentive to undertake large cultural developments. It was during this time that Bath's Theatre Royal was first built, as well as
architectural triumphs such as
Lansdown Crescent, the
Royal Crescent, The Circus and
Pulteney Bridge.
Today, Bath has four
theatres—Theatre Royal, Ustinov Studio, The Egg and Rondo Theatre—attracting internationally renowned companies and directors, including 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. The city holds the Bath International Music Festival and Mozartfest every year. Other festivals include the annual Bath Film Festival, the Bath Fringe Festival and the Bath Beer Festival.
The city is home to the Victoria Art Gallery, Museum of East Asian Art, and The Holburne Museum of Art, as well as the museums The Bath Postal Museum, The Museum of Costume,
,The Jane Austen Centre and the
Roman Baths.
The city has many churches including , located in the city centre.
Bath in the arts
Perhaps the best known resident of Bath was
Jane Austen, who lived in the city from 1801 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 her feelings regarding the city, Bath has honoured her name with the Jane Austen Centre and a city walk based on Austen. After leaving the city, Austen wrote two novels,
Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen [i]'s novels to be completed for publication, though s ...
and
Persuasion , which are largely set in the city and feature descriptions of taking the waters, social life, and cultural resources such as music recitals.
- Charles Dickens' novel Pickwick Papers, better known as The Pickwick Papers, is the first ...
also features Bath, and satirises its social life. Pickwick takes the waters and his 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.
- 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 at the inventor of cinematography.
- Moyra Caldecott's novel The Waters of Sul is set in Roman Bath in 72 AD. Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The Rivals is also set in Bath.
- Roald Dahl's chilling short-story, "The Landlady" also takes place in the city of Bath.
- In August 2003 the Three Tenors sang at a special concert to mark the opening of the Thermae Bath Spa, a new hot water spring 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 is a short walk from the centre of the city. It was opened in 1830 and has an area of 150,000 m². Several events are held in the park every year, including the International Music Festival , and it is favoured as a take-off site by
hot air balloon companies. The park features a
botanical garden, a large children's play park, and sports facilities, including ones for
crazy golf and
lawn tennis. 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 up to Royal Avenue.
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 everyday." Alexandra, Alice and Henrietta parks were built into the growing city among the housing developments. A linear park now exists where the old railway line once was.
Food
The restaurant
Sally Lunn's House at 4 North Parade Passage serves teacakes called Sally Lunn's, which have long been baked in Bath. They were first mentioned by that name in verses printed in the
Bath Chronicle in 1772. At that time they were eaten hot at public breakfasts in Spring Gardens. They can be eaten with sweet or savoury toppings. Yum yum.....
Visitors sometimes confuse
Sally Lunn's buns with
Bath Buns — smaller round, very sweet, very rich buns associated with the city following the Great Exhibition. Derivatives of Sally Lunn Buns were topped with crushed 'comfits' created by dipping caraway seeds repeatedly in boiling sugar but today the seeds are added to the 'London Bath Bun' usually replaced by crushed sugar granules or 'nibs'.
Bath lent its name to one other distinctive recipe —
Bath Olivers — the dry baked biscuits invented by Dr William Oliver, physician to the Mineral Water Hospital, Bath in 1740. Oliver was an early anti-obesity campaiger, writing a 'Practical Essay on the Use and Abuse of warm Bathing in Gluty Cases'. Local legend has it that he bequeathed the recipe for his low calorie biscuits to his coachman, a Mr Atkins, along with £100 and a hundred sacks of flour. Atkins subsequently opened a shop in Green Street, Bath and became a rich man on the proceeds.
Sport
The city's best known sporting team is
Bath Rugby, a
rugby union team which is currently in the Guinness Premiership league. It plays in black, blue and white kit with its sponsors' logo, Helphire, on the front of the shirts. The team plays at the Recreation Ground in the city, where it has been since the late 19th century, following its establishment in 1865. The team rose to national prestige during the 1980s, and it has remained one of the best rugby teams in the country. Its first major honour was winning the John Player Cup four years consecutively from 1984 until 1987. The team then led the Courage league for six consecutive seasons, from 1988/1989 until 1995/1996, during which time it also won the Pilkington Cup in 1989, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995 and 1996. It finally won the
Heineken Cup in the 1997/1998 season, and topped the Zurich Premiership in 2003/2004.
Its current squad includes several members who also play in the
English national elite team including: Steve Borthwick, Lee Mears, Matt Stevens, Olly Barkley, David Flatman and Danny Grewcock.
Colston's Collegiate School,
Bristol has had a large input in the team over the past decade, providing current 1st XV squad members Barkley, Bell, Brooker, Crockett, Davey, Davis, Delve, Hawkins, Mears and Smith. The current England Rugby Team Manager Andy Robinson used to play for Bath Rugby team and was Captain and later Coach. While in the Bath team, he was a Physical Education, Rugby and Mathematics teacher at King Edward's School, North Road, Bath. Both of Robinson's predecessors, Clive Woodward and Jack Rowell, were also former Bath coaches and managers.
Bath City F.C. and
Team Bath F.C. are the major
football teams, both of which are in the
Southern Football League. 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. Unlike the city's rugby team, Bath City have never attained an elite status in English football; its highest position has been seventh in the
Football Conference in the 1992/1993 season. The University's team was established in 1999, while the city team has existed since before 1908 .
Bath City F.C. play their games at Twerton Park. Current players include; Scott Partridge, Jim Rollo, Andy Sandell and former South African international goalkeeper Paul Evans.
Cricket is played at the Bath Cricket Club, located, like the rugby Recreation Ground, east of the river, near
Pulteney Bridge. The cricket ground is the venue for the annual Bath Cricket Festival which sees
Somerset County Cricket Club play several games.
The Bath Recreation Ground is also home to , which was re-formed in 1976 and is affiliated with the South West Federation of
Croquet Clubs.
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,
swimming,
tennis and
triathlon.
Bath is also the home of the , which has been playing
American Football in the city since 2001. It has three levels of play: Senior, Youth and Junior.
Business
The city lies at the junction of the
Kennet and Avon Canal and the navigable
River Avon. It has a station on the main line from
London to
Bristol, which was built by the
Great Western Railway. At one time, it was also served by the
Midland Railway, and by the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway.
Today, its once-important manufacturing sector is much declined, but it has notable software, publishing and service-oriented industries, in addition to tourism. The magazine publisher
Future Publishing is one of Bath's bigger employers. The firm publishes over 100 magazines, including many in the computer and video gaming sector. Other main employers are the Ministry of Defence, although a number of MOD offices have moved to
Bristol; the
National Health Service, and Helphire Group Plc an Accident Management Company specialising in non-fault motor accidents. Bath contains many small single-shop or restaurant-based businesses, which fulfil a niche market and are primarily supported by tourism.
Tourism
Bath's principal industry is
tourism. Bath is the most visited city outside of
London for tourists travelling to the UK, whose visits mainly fall into the categories of heritage tourism or cultural tourism. All significant stages of the
history of England are represented within the city, from the Roman Baths , to
Bath Abbey and the
Royal Crescent, to Thermae Bath Spa in the 2000s.
The size of the tourist industry is reflected in the almost 300 places of accommodation—including over 80
hotels, and over 180
Bed and Breakfasts—many of which are located in
Georgian buildings and have five-star ratings. The city also contains approximately 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.
The tourist season is mainly the summer, though there is a year-round presence of tourists. While many come to Bath to see the city in general, some are attracted to particular aspects of the city, such as the
Jane Austen landmarks or the
Roman Baths.
The Spa
In 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:
...
,
NetherlandsTransport
Bath is served by the
Bath Spa railway station, which has regular connections to
London Paddington,
Bristol Temple Meads,
Cardiff,
Swansea,
Plymouth and
Penzance 
