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Created a city in 1590 by Queen Elizabeth I, Bath has been in the county of Somerset until the twentieth century when it became part of the unpopular county of Avon created from parts of Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire and including the city of Bristol. By the Local Government Act 1992 and the Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995, the county of Avon split was into four unitary authorities (Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath and NE Somerset), the change comming into effect on April 1st, 1996.
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The Celts treated the site of the main spring at Bath as a shrine dedicated to the goddess Sulis.
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The presence of an earthen bank which projects into the main spring and the later Roman retention of the Celtic name "Sulis" suggests the site was already firmly entrenched as a place a focal point for worship.
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The Romans, who invaded Britain in AD 43, identified the Celtic Sulis with their own goddess Minerva but named the town Aquae Sulis, simply "the waters of Sulis". They built increasingly grand temples and baths in the town throughout their occupation and these were rediscovered from the eighteenth century onwards. before the departure of the Romans in AD410, the town had been walled.
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The Minerva Head, the gilded bronze head of the Roman goddess was found in 1727 during the digging of a vast trench to lay sewers in the city, thrilling its fashionable society. It was not until 1790, when the foundations were being laid for the Pump Room, that a solid Roman pavement was uncovered four metres below ground level.
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The Fosse Way, the Roman road from London to Wales crossed the river Avon at Bath. Not only did the Fosse Way connect the spa town with other other centres of population in the province, but it also served as a route for the Romans to bring the lead mined in the Mendip Hills, with which they lined the hot baths, to the town.
The baths fell into disrepair after the departure of the Romans in AD410 although there is evidence that the hot spring waters continued to be used in Saxon times.
Osric, King of the Hwicce, established a monastic house at Bath in AD675, probably sited within the walled area. King Offa of Mercia, who gained this monastery in 781, rebuilt the church dedicated to St Peter and the town became a royal possession.
Alfred the Great (c.871-c.901) laid out the town afresh as the street-plan of Roman Bath had become lost. The south-eastern quadrant of Alfred's bath was reserved as the abbey precinct.
In 973, King Edgar was crowned at Bath by St Dunstan and the ceremony used has formed the basis for coronations into modern times.
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The Anglo-Saxon name for the town was variously known as "Ba�um", "Ba�an" or "Ba�on", meaning 'at the baths', from which the modern city derives its name.
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Royal physician, John of Tours, was garnted the town which was a royal possession by King William II (Rufus). He became Bishop of Wells and Abbot of Bath in 1088. having obtained permission to move the see of Somerset from Wells to Bath, the bishop began to build amuch larger church as his cathedral with an attached priory. Nearby was erected the bishops palace and new baths were erected around the town's three springs.
In 1189 the crusading King Richard I (1189-1199) who only spent six months in England sold the town its first charter, granting it freedom from tolls and a measure of self-government, to raise funds for his crusades - Bath recieved a total of twenty-seven royal charters.
The bishops who succeeded John of Tours preferred Wells to Bath and the church there regained its status as a cathedral the see becomming known as "Bath and Wells".
In 1348, the black death hit Bath as it spread throughout the country and almost half the population of the town are thought to have died. Bath was devastated and fell into decline and its monastery became a ruin.
Neglected for many decades, the cathedral became badly delapidated by the fifteenth century and Oliver King, Bishop of Bath and Wells decided to rebuild it on a smaller scale in 1500. The new cathedral was only finished a few years vefore the dissolution of Bath Priory in 1539.
Henry VIII considered Bath cathedral to be redundant and allowed it to decay and the Priory fell victim to his dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. During the Elizabethan period, Bath saw a resurgence in its popularity as a spa, the former cathedral was restored as a parish church and Bath was created a city in 1590.
During the reigns of the Stuart kings, Bath's popularity as a spa continued and resulted in extensive rebuilding although this was overshadowed by the huge expansion of the city during the Georgian period.
The which ended with the beheading of King Charles I and rule by the Commonwealth saw a bloody Parliamentary victory on July 5th, 1643. Only 42 years later, in 1685, the same grievances of taxation and religious intolerance brought about Monmouth's rebellion and the garrison of royal troops stationed at Bath attacked the rebel Duke at nearby Norton St Philip. The rebllion in the West Country was followed by the King's vengeance in the form of the notorious Bloody Assizes, the savagery of which would eventually cause the downfall of the monarch.
During the Civil War between King and Parliament, Bath's gentry, merchants and cloth-makers sided with Parliament and, by the summer of 1643, two great rival armies had mustered in Somerset. only twenty miles apart; the Parliamentarians at Bath and the Royalists at Wells. The two opposing armies joined at Bath in the Battle of Lansdown in July 1643.
The large Royalist force from Wells had taken Bradford-on-Avon to secure the vital Bridge over the river Avon
and so threatened to encircle the smaller Parliamentary army barracked in Bath, just a few miles downstream.
The Parliamentarians, under Sir William Waller, slipped out of Bath and entrenched themselves on the steep slopes of nearby Lansdown Hill by an Iron-Age hill fort. The superior Royalist army approached the Parliamentary position which seemed so impregnable that they started to retreat.
The opportunity was seized by Waller and the Parliamentary cavalry charged down the hill to attack the retreating Royalist horse who were thoroughly routed, with some galloping all the way to Oxford. The initial success was short-lived because the Royalist Cornish infantry stood firm, their pikemen holding the attacking cavalry long enough to allow the Royalist army to regroup and re-angage.
The pikemen not only forced the Parliamentary cavalry back up Lansdown Hill, but with astonishing bravery they advanced up the steep slope into the Parliamentary guns to take the position.
Although the Royalists had won the day on Lansdown Hill, their losses were horrendous.
In 1685, only forty-two years after the bloody Battle of Lansdown during the Civil War, the Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis with eighty supporters to mount a rebellion against James II for much the same reasons - taxation and the religious edicts of the Catholic king.
The Protestant Duke's cause had widespread support in the West Country and, as he marched through Dorset and Somerset, the ranks of his followers swelled to four regiments. Within two weeks of his landing at Lyme Regis, the growing army of Puritan rebels reached Bath where the royal army was barracked.
The Duke's herald called up to the defenders of the walled city for the royal army to surrender but quickly recieved a well-aimed bullet to his head by way of an answer. Monmouth skirted around Bath to spend the night of Friday, June 26th in the George Inn at the nearby village of Norton St Philip.
The following morning, the royal army mounted a surprise attack on Norton St Philip, storming the town and threatening to overrun the barricade the Dike had erected to protect his headquarters at the George Inn. The rebels managed to flank the royal forces who, harried and surrounded on three sides, scrambled through the surrounding countryside to where their guns lay in wait. Throughout the retreat, royalist losses mounted but Monmouth was forced to abandon the attack by torrential rain.
Following the defeat of Monmouths rebellion in 1685, Bath took part in one of the more shamefull events of English history as the it was one of the West Country towns which suffered the "The Bloody Assizes"; the Catholic James II was determined to make and example of the rebels in this predominantly Protestant part of the country and ordered a judicial commission headed by the Lord Chief Justice, Judge Jeffreys, to try and punish those involved in a notorious series of trials. The victims of the King's retribution were executed as traitors throughout the West Country or deported to the penal colonies overseas. The sheriff's warrant at Bath for the 16th of November is typical of many;
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I require you immediately on sight hereof to erect a gallows in the most public place of your said city to hang the said traitors on, and that you provide halters to hang them with, a sufficient number of faggots to burn the bowels of four traitors and a furnace or couldron to boil their heads and quarters, and salt to boil them therewith, half a bushel to each traitor, and tar to tar them with and a sufficient number of spears and pole to fix and place their heads and quarters, and that you warn the owners of four oxen to be ready with a dray or wain and the said oxen at the time hereafter mentioned for execution, and yourselves together with a gaurd of 40 able men at least, to be present on Wednesday morning next by 8 of the clock, to be aiding and assisting to me, or my deputy, to see the said rebels executed . . . You are also to provide an axe and a cleaver for the quartering of the said rebels.
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see also: MONMOUTH'S REBELLION, THE BLOODY ASSIZES
The extensive rebuilding of the city during the reigns of the Stuart Kings was overshadowed by the rapid expansion which took place in the Georgian period when Bath achieved its zenith a fashionable spa and playground of the aristocracy, sparked by the visit of Queen Anne in 1702.
The spa city prospered as Britain's premier watering place in the early eighteenth century under the direction of the socialite, dandy and �Master of Ceremonies�, Richard �Beau� Nash, as fashionable society gathered to �take the waters� and enjoy the entertainments offered by the city�s theatres and concert rooms.
John Wood, the renowned architect, laid the foundations for a new Georgian city built using the honey-coloured bath stone which gives Bath its mellow quality.
John Wood the Elder found the city a sorry place, much like any large town of the time, with filthy streets . . . |
| Soil of all sorts, and even carrion, were cast and laid in the streets, and the pigs turned out by day to feed and rout among it; butchers killed and dressed their cattle at their own doors; people washed every kind of thing they had to make clean at the common conduits in the open streets . . . |
. . . but he had a vision of making Bath a great city along classical lines . . . |
| I proposed to make a grand Place of Assembly, to be called the Royal Forum of Bath; another place, no less magnificent, for the Exhibition of Sports, to be called the Grand Circus; and a third place, of equal state with either of the former, for the Practice of Medicinal exercises, to be called the Imperial Gymnasium . . . |
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The Minerva Head, the gilded bronze head of the Roman goddess was found in 1727 during the digging of a vast trench to lay sewers in the city, thrilling its fashionable society. It was not until 1790, when the foundations were being laid for the Pump Room, that a solid Roman pavement was uncovered four metres below ground level.
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Within the short space of a century, the small city of 2,000 inhabitants mushroomed fifteen-fold to 30,000, making it the eighth largest city in England by 1801.
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Ralph Allen (1693-1764), the Postmaster who remodelled the Post Office to save it £1,500,000 over 40 years, also amassed a large personal fortune.
As well as building himself a beautiful Palladian Mansion, "to see all Bath, and for all Bath to see", he funded the building of, and donated the stone from his quarries for, the Mineral Water Hospital in 1738.
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Ralph Allen was the driving force behind the building of the Avon Navigation Canal which, by improving the course of the Avon, enabled blocks of Bathstone from his quarries to be transported to the city to supply the building boom.
The Avon Navigation was later linked by the Kennet and Avon Canal to the river Thames allowing Bath's cloth to be exported to London and the world. Twelve metres wide and a hundred kilometres long with seventy-nine locks, the canal was a great engineering feat. After the arrival of Isambard Kingdom Brunel' Great Western Railway (June 14th, 1841), the GWR bought out the canal in 1852 and allowed it to decline into ruin.
As with other spas, Bath's popularity faded in the nineteenth century. In 1789, King George III and the court stayed at Weymouth for
ten weeks and started the fad for sea bathing which caused the development of coastal resorts
at the expense of the spas.
The twentieth century saw its rise as a tourist destination to the extent that, amongst overseas visitors to the UK, it is now the second most visited city after
London.
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Royalty
| King Alfred the Great (c.871-c.901) |
| | Alfred laid out the town afresh as the street-plan of Roman Bath had become lost. |
| King Charles I |
| | The King visited the spa city in July, 1628. |
| Queen Anne |
| | Seriously affected by gout throughout her life, Princess Anne visited Bath in 1688 and returned with her husband, Prince George of Denmark, in 1692, staying at the old Abbey Church House. She returned with her husband as Queen in 1702 but the course of the waters gave her no respite from the gout but assured the spa of its popularity amongst the rich. It was during this visit that Queen Anne performed the ceremony of 'touching for the King's Evil', the last English monarch to perform this ceremony reputed to cure scrofula.Queen Anne returned again in 1703. |
| Queen Elizabeth I |
| | The Queen stayed at Bath in 1574 during one of her progresses through the West Country and created the town a city by royal charter in 1590. |
| Queen Henrietta Maria |
| | Henrietta Maria visited the spa city of Bath in 1634 (the King had visited there in 1628) and was not satisfied with the cure. She preferred Bourbon where both circumstances and the entertainment available were more to her French tastes. |
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Bath's Georgian Expansion
| Ralph Allen (1693-1764) |
| | The Cornish-born postmaster, businessman and philanthropist who, together with the dandy Richard 'Beau' Nash and the architect John Wood the Elder, were instrumental in the huge Georgian expansion of the city of Bath as a spa resort for the wealthy. Allen was Bath's mayor only once. |
| Richard (Beau) Nash |
| | Together with businessman and philanthropist Ralph Allen and the architect John Wood the Elder, Beau Nash was instrumental in the huge Georgian expansion of the city of Bath as a spa resort for the wealthy. |
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| Jane Austen |
| The novelist lived in Bath between 1801 and 1806 and set two of her novels, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, in the city. The Jane Austen Centre in Gay Street explores Bath in Jane Austen's time and the importance of Bath in her writing and in her life. |
| William Herschel |
| The scientist and musician was living in bath in 1781 when he discovered the planet Uranus. The William Herschel Museum in New King Street is furnished according to the period when he lived in the town and shows the contribution made by William and his sister Caroline to science and music. |
| William Smith (1760-1839) |
| The English geologist, termed "the Father of English geology," and known among his acquaintances as "Strata Smith", moved to Bath from High Littleton in 1795. |
"Bath Chap" is the name given to a pig's cheek and jaw which has been
dried, salted and smoked. It is so-called because the idea is said to have originated in Bath.
"Chap" is an Old English word for "cheek".
| 391 | | Roman Emperor Theodosius orders the closure of pagan temples throughout the Empire as Christianity becomes the established religion | | BAAAGBRE | | 577 | | Battle of Deorham Down near Bristol results in the separation of the West Welsh (the Cornish) from the Welsh by the advancing of the Saxons
Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester mentioned in an account of the battle but not Bristol | | BAAAGCEK BAAAGEAF BAAAGDEZ BAAAGEDZ BAAAGBKA BAAAGBRO BAAAGEFP BAAAGEFQ | | 973 | | Coronation of King Edgar at Bath by St Dunstan
The ceremony forms the basis of the modern coronation ceremony | | BAAAGEEQ BAAAGCQI BAAAGEES | | 1189 | | Bath granted its first charter, freeing it from tolls and allowing it a measure of self-government
This was the first of 27 royal charters granted to ,a href=BAAAGCQI.php>Bath | | | | 1405 | | Commencement of the building of Bath Abbey (-1499) | | | | 1518.Jul | | Thomas Wolsey appointed Bishop of Bath and Wells | | BAAAGEKW | | 1590 | | Bath created a city
Baths popularity as a spa revived during the Elizabethan period | | BAAAGCLM BAAAGCQI | | 1643.Jul.05 | | Battle of Lansdown Hill; Parliamentary garrison from nearby Bath defeated by the Royalist army but with apalling losses | | BAAAGCAP | | 1685.Jun.11 | | Rebel Duke of Monmouth lands at Lyme Regis in Dorset with 82 supporters to wrest the Crown from James II
Monmouths rebellion in the West Country was crushed by James II at the Battle of Sedgemoor and followed by the notorious Bloody Assizes presided over by Judge Jeffereys | | BAAAGBYS BAAAGCEE BAAAGBIL BAAAGBHZ BAAAGBVK BAAAGEFP BAAAGEFQ BAAAGBUI | | 1685.Jun.26 | | Monmouth and his rebels skirt Bath and the Duke spends the night in Norton St Philip | | BAAAGBVK | | 1685.Jun.27 | | Battle of Norton St Philip; Monmouths rebels rebuff the royal attack but break off pursuit because of torrential rain | | BAAAGBVK | | 1685.Jul.06 | | Royal army under John Churchill massacres the remnants of Monmouths rebels at the battle of Sedgemoor, near Bridgewater in Somerset
Monmouth himself escapes | | BAAAGBVK BAAAGEDG BAAAGCEE | | 1685.Jul.15 | | Execution of the
Duke of Monmouth on Tower Hill
The execution was bungled by the notoriously incompetent public executioner John Ketch | | BAAAGBVK BAAAGCKU | | 1705 | | Richard Nash arrives in Bath | | BAAAGHEY | | 1710 | | Ralph Allen moves to Bath from Cornwall where he becomes assistant postmaster | | BAAAGEHX | | 1712 | | Ralph Allen at Bath becomes the youngest postmaster in the kingdom | | BAAAGEHX BAAAGBJL | | 1715 | | Bath postmaster, Ralph Allen, discloses details of a Jacobite plot in the West Country to General Wade | | BAAAGEHX BAAAGBJL BAAAGBHZ | | 1725 | | Ralph Allen made an Honorary Freeman of Bath | | BAAAGEHX | | 1727 | | Opening of the River Avon Navigation Canal from Hanham Mills, between Bath and Bristol, to Bath,
Somerset
It was purchased by the Kennet and Avon Canal Co in 1796 | | BAAAGCXC BAAAGCJV BAAAGDEZ BAAAGEDZ | | 1727 | | Discovery of The Minerva Head at Bath | | BAAAGBRE | | 1738 | | Building of the Mineral Water Hospital at Bath by Postmaster Ralph Allen | | | | 1742 | | Ralph Allen becomes mayor of Bath | | BAAAGEHX | | 1755 | | Rediscovery of the Roman baths at Bath | | | | 1755 | | Demolition of Abbey Church House, Bath
Queen Anne and her husband, Prince George of Denmark, stayed in the house during their visit in 1692 | | | | 1757 | | Ralph Allen becomes an MP for Bath | | BAAAGEHX | | 1762.Feb.03 | | Death of the dandy Richard Beau Nash (1674-) who influenced the Georgian expansion of Bath and dominated its society for fifty years | | BAAAGEHY | | 1764 | | Death of Ralph Allen (1693-), postmaster, businessman and philanthropist of Bath, aged 71
Together with the dandy Richard Beau Nash and the architect John Wood the Elder, he was instrumental in the huge Georgian expansion of Bath as a spa resort for the wealthy | | BAAAGEHX | | 1784 | | Britain\'s first mail coach service runs between London and Bath (along what is now the A4) | | BAAAGBJL BAAAGBWQ BAAAGEDX BAAAGCQI BAAAGCEV BAAAGDKN | | 1789 | | King George III stays at Weymouth in Dorset with the whole of the royal court for 10 weeks starting the
fad for sea bathing which led to the rise of the seaside resort | | BAAAGBUZ BAAAGBYS BAAAGCSB BAAAGEFV | | 1790 | | Solid Roman pavement discovered 4 metres below ground during the digging of foundations for the new Pump Room at Bath | | BAAAGBRE | | 1794 | | William Smith (1760-1839) produces the first geological map of England showing the vicinity of Bath | | BAAAGCQI | | 1801 | | Novelist Jane Austen moves to Bath
She set two of novels in the city | | | | 1810 | | Kennet and Avon Canal opened from Bath to Newbury, linking the Bristol Channel to the Thames at Reading | | BAAAGCJV BAAAGCDL BAAAGCXC BAAAGDEZ BAAAGEDZ BAAAGCUI BAAAGEHZ BAAAGEIS | | 1996.Apr.01 | | Abolition of the County of Avon by the Local Government Act 1992 and the Avon (Structural Change) Order 1995; Avon split into four unitary authorities - Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath and NE Somerset | | BAAAGEDZ BAAAGBHZ BAAAGCQI BAAAGBIB BAAAGBKB |
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