We
were up by 7.00am to get ready to leave Broneirion Lodge. We were on the road
by around 9.00am. It was a fairly mild morning, cloudy but fine. We stopped at
a little roadside café for a coffee and some fresh air as Alison was feeling a
little seedy. We arrived in Bath just after midday. We are staying at Bailbrook
House Hotel. It is a beautiful “handpicked” hotel. After finding our rooms, we
caught a bus to the city so we could do some exploring. But our first stop was
a little café for lunch. Then we headed to the Roman Baths. There was a queue
at the Baths, but it didn’t take long for us to get in.
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| Roman Baths in Bath |
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| more of the Baths (with Ali & I) |
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| more of the Baths |
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| another view of the Roman Baths at Bath |
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| more of the Baths |
The Roman Baths
themselves are below the modern street level. There are four main features: the
Sacred Spring, the Roman Temple, the Roman Bath House and the Museum holding finds from Roman Bath. The buildings
above street level date from the 19th century. Visitors can see the Baths and
Museum but cannot enter the water. An audio guide is available in several
languages. The water which bubbles up from the ground at Bath fell as rain on
the nearby Mendip Hills. It percolates down through limestone aquifers to a depth of between 2,700 metres
(8,900 ft) and 4,300 metres (14,100 ft) where geothermal energy raises the water temperature
to between 64C (147.2F)
and 96 °C (204.8 °F). 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 46 °C (114.8 °F) rises here at the rate of 1,170,000 litres (257,364 imp gal) 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. The
statue of King Bladud overlooking the King's Bath carries
the date of 1699, but its inclusion in earlier pictures shows that it is much
older than this. The first shrine at the site of the hot springs was built by Celts,
and was dedicated to the goddess Sulis,
whom the Romans identified with Minerva. Geoffre of Monmouth in his
largely fictional Historia Regum Britanniae
describes how in 836 BC the spring was discovered by the British King Bladud
who built the first baths. Early in the 18th century Geoffrey's obscure legend
was given great prominence as a royal endorsement of the waters' qualities,
with the embellishment that the spring had cured Bladud and his herd of pigs of leprosy through wallowing in the warm mud. The
name Sulis continued to be used after the Roman invasion, leading
to the town's Roman name of Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis").
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 to provide a stable foundation into the mud and surrounded the
spring with an irregular stone chamber lined with lead. In the 2nd century it
was enclosed within a wooden barrel-vaulted building, and included the caldarium (hot bath), tepidarium (warm bath), and frigidarium (cold bath). After the Roman withdrawal from Britain
in the first decade of the 5th century, these fell into disrepair and were
eventually lost due to silting up, and flooding. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle suggests
the original Roman baths were destroyed in the 6th century. About 130 curse tablets have been found. Many of the curses
related to thefts of clothes whilst the victim was bathing. This collection is
the most important found in Britain. The baths have been modified on several
occasions, including the 12th century when John of Tours built a curative bath over the
King's Spring reservoir and the 16th century when the city corporation built a
new bath (Queen's Bath) to the south of the Spring. The spring is now housed in
18th century buildings, designed by architects John Wood, the Elder and John Wood, the Younger,
father and son. Visitors drank the waters in the Grand Pump Room, a neo-classical salon which remains in use, both
for taking the waters and for social functions. Victorian expansion of the baths complex
followed the neo-classical tradition established by the Woods. In 1810 the Hot
Springs failed and William Smith opened up the
Hot Bath Spring to the bottom, where he found that the spring had not failed
but had flowed into a new channel. Smith restored the water to its original
course and the Baths filled in less time than formerly.The
visitor entrance is via an 1897 concert hall by J M Brydon. It is an eastward
continuation of the Grand Pump Room with a glass-domed centre and single-storey
radiused corner. The Grand Pump Room was begun in 1789 by Thomas Baldwin. He
resigned in 1791 and John Palmer continued
the scheme until its completion in 1799. The elevation on to Abbey Church Yard
has a centre piece of four engaged Corinthian columns with entablatures and pediment. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building. The north colonnade was also
designed by Thomas Baldwin. The south colonnade is similar but had an upper
floor added in the late 19th century. The museum and Queen's Bath including the
"Bridge" spanning York Street to the City Laundry were by Charles
Edward Davis in 1889. It comprises a southward extension to the Grand Pump
Room, in which some remains of the C17 Queen's Bath are merged.The
museum houses artefacts from the Roman period including objects which were
thrown into the Sacred Spring, presumably as offerings to the goddess. These
include more than 12,000 Roman currency coins
which is the largest collective votive deposit known from Britain. A gilt bronze
head of the goddess Sulis Minerva, which was discovered nearby
in 1727, is displayed. The Bath Roman Temple stood on a podium more than two
metres above the surrounding courtyard, approached by a flight of steps. On the
approach there were four large, fluted Corinthian columns supporting a frieze and decorated pediment above. The pediment, parts of which
are displayed in the museum, is the triangular ornamental section, 26 feet
(7.9 m) wide and 8 feet (2.4 m) from the apex to the bottom, above
the pillars on the front of the building. It featured the very powerful central
image of the Gorgon's head glowering down from a height
of 15 metres on all who approached the temple. In early 2010 various stones on
the pediment were conserved and rearranged. In the corners of the pediment are Tritons, half men and half fish, servants
of the water god Neptune. In the lower left centre ground is
a face helmet in the form of a dolphin’s head. The small owl tucked away to the
lower right of the large central roundel is also almost certainly perched atop
another helmet. The central head is held aloft by female 'Victories', on a
shield ringed with oak leaves. The Victories stand on globes. Above all this,
in the apex of the pediment, is a star. The great head itself has snakes
entwined within its beard, wings above its ears, beetling brows and a heavy mustache although there is some controversy about what this really represents
as Gorgons are usually female. An alternative
interpretation sees the central head as the image of a water god such as the
image of Ocianus, and yet another as a Celtic sun
god. Also on display are the remains of the elaborate hypocaust heating system which served the
sweat rooms. Bath was charged with responsibility for the hot springs in a
Royal Charter of 1591 granted by Elizabeth I. This duty has now passed to Bath and North East Somerset Council,
who carry out monitoring of pressure, temperature and flow rates. The thermal
waters contain sodium, calcium, chloride and sulphate ions in high concentrations.
After
our visit to the Roman Baths, we headed across the square to the Bath Abbey. The
Abbey Church of Saint Peter and Saint
Paul, Bath, commonly known as Bath
Abbey, is an Anglican parish church and a former Benedictine monastery
in Bath, Somerset, England. Founded in the 7th century, Bath Abbey was
reorganised in the 10th century and rebuilt in the 12th and
16th centuries; major restoration work was carried out by Sir George
Gilbert Scott in the 1860s. It is one of the largest examples of Perpendicular
Gothic architecture in the West Country. The church is cruciform in plan, and
is able to seat 1200. The abbey is a Grade I listed building, particularly
noted for its fan vaulting. It contains war memorials for the local population
and monuments to several notable people, in the form of wall and floor plaques
and commemorative stained glass. The church has two organs and a peal of ten
bells. The west front includes sculptures of angels climbing to heaven on two
stone ladders. In 675 Orsic, King of the Hwicce, granted the Abbess Berta 100
hides near Bath for the establishment of a convent. This religious house became
a monastery under the patronage of the Bishop of Worcester. King Offa of Mercia
successfully wrested "that most famous monastery at Bath" from the
bishop in 781. William of Malmesbury tells that Offa rebuilt the monastic
church, which may have occupied the site of an earlier pagan temple, to such a
standard that King Eadwig was moved to describe it as being "marvellously
built"; little is known about the architecture of this first building on
the site. Monasticism in England had declined by that time, but Eadwig's
brother Edgar (who was crowned "King of the English" at the abbey in
973) began its revival on his accession to the throne in 959. He encouraged
monks to adopt the Rule of St Benedict, which was introduced at Bath under
Abbot Ælfheah. Bath was ravaged in the power struggle between the sons of William
the Conqueror following his death in 1087. The victor, William Rufus, granted
the city to a royal physician, John of Tours, who became Bishop of Wells and
Abbot of Bath. Shortly after his consecration John bought Bath Abbey's grounds
from the king, as well as the city of Bath itself. Whether John paid Rufus for
the city or whether he was given it as a gift by the king is unclear. The abbey
had recently lost its abbot, Ælfsige, and according to Doomsday Book was the
owner of large estates in and near the city; it was likely the abbey's wealth
that attracted John to take over the monastery. By acquiring Bath, John also
acquired the mint that was in the city. In 1090 he transferred the seat, or
administration, of the bishopric to Bath Abbey, probably in an attempt to
increase the revenues of his see. Bath was a rich abbey, and Wells had always
been a poor diocese. By taking over the abbey, John increased his episcopal
revenues. William of Malmesbury portrays the moving of the episcopal seat as
motivated by a desire for the lands of the abbey, but it was part of a pattern
at the time of moving cathedral seats from small villages to larger towns. When
John moved his episcopal seat, he also took over the abbey of Bath as his
cathedral chapter, turning his diocese into a bishopric served by monks instead
of the canons at Wells who had previously served the diocese. John rebuilt the
monastic church at Bath, which had been damaged during one of Robert de Mowbray’s
rebellions. Permission was given to move the seat of Somerset from Wells –
a comparatively small settlement – to the then walled city of Bath. When
this was effected in 1090, John became the first Bishop of Bath, and St Peter's
was raised to cathedral status. As the roles of bishop and abbot had been
combined, the monastery became a priory, run by its prior. With the elevation
of the abbey to cathedral status, it was felt that a larger, more up-to-date
building was required. John of Tours planned a new cathedral on a grand scale,
dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul, but only the ambulatory was complete
when he died in December 1122. He was buried in the cathedral. The most
renowned scholar monk based in the abbey was Adelard of Bath; after his various
travels he was back in the monastery by 1106. The half-finished cathedral was
devastated by fire in 1137, but work continued under Godfrey, the new bishop,
until about 1156; the completed building was approximately 330 feet
(101 m) long. There were 40 monks on the roll in 1206. Joint cathedral
status was awarded by Pope Innocent IV to Bath and Wells in 1245. Roger of
Salisbury was appointed the first Bishop of Bath and Wells, having been Bishop
of Bath for a year previously. Later bishops preferred Wells, the canons of
which had successfully petitioned various popes down the years for Wells to
regain cathedral status. Bath Cathedral gradually fell into disrepair. In 1485
the priory had 22 monks. The existence of an ambulatory suggests a very large
building, on a par with Durham Cathedral. When Oliver King, Bishop of Bath and
Wells 1495–1503, visited Bath in 1499 he was shocked to find this famous church
in ruins. He also described lax discipline, idleness and a group of monks
"all too eager to succumb to the temptations of the flesh". He took a
year to consider what action to take, before writing to the Prior of Bath in
October 1500 to explain that a large amount of the priory income would be
dedicated to rebuilding the cathedral. Work probably began the following
spring. Bishop King planned a smaller church, covering the area of the Norman
nave only. He did not live to see the result, but the restoration of the
cathedral was completed just a few years before the Dissolution of Monasteries
in 1539. The new church is not a typical example of the Perpendicular form of Gothic
architecture; the low aisles and nave arcades and the very tall clerestory
present the opposite balance to that which was usual in perpendicular churches.
As this building was to serve as a monastic church, it was built to a cruciform
plan, which had become relatively rare in parish churches of the time. The
interior contains fine fan vaulting by Robert and William Vertue, who designed
similar vaulting for the Henry VII chapel, at Westminster Abbey. The building
has 52 windows, occupying about 80% of the wall space, giving the interior an
impression of lightness, and reflecting the different attitudes towards
churchmanship shown by the clergy of the time and those of the 12th century. Prior
Holloway surrendered Bath Priory to the crown in January 1539. The church was
stripped of lead, iron and glass and left to decay. In 1574, Queen Elizabeth I
promoted the restoration of the church, to serve as the grand parish church of
Bath. She ordered that a national fund should be set up to finance the work. James
Montague, the Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1608–1616, paid £1,000 for a new
nave roof of timber lath construction; according to the inscription on his
tomb, this was prompted after seeking shelter in the roofless nave during a
thunderstorm. He is buried in an alabaster tomb in the north aisle. Major restoration
work was carried out by Sir George Gilbert Scott in the 1860s, funded by the
rector, Charles Kemble. The work included the installation of fan vaulting in
the nave, which was not merely a fanciful aesthetic addition but a completion
of the original design. Bishop King had arranged for the vaulting of the choir,
to a design by William and Robert Vertue. There are clues in the stonework that
King intended the vaulting to continue into the nave, but that this plan was
abandoned, probably for reasons of cost. The cruciform abbey is built of Bath
Stone, which gives the exterior its yellow colour. It is an atypical example of
the Perpendicular form of Gothic architecture, with low aisles and nave arcades
and a tall clerestory. The walls and roofs are supported by buttresses and
surmounted by battlements, pinnacles and pierced parapets, many of which were
added by George Manners during his 1830's restorations. The nave, which has
five bays, is 211 feet (64 m) long and 35 feet (11 m) wide to the
pillars and rises to 75 feet (23 m), with the whole church being 225 feet
(69 m) long and 80 feet (24 m) wide. The west front, which was
originally constructed in 1520, has a large arched window and detailed
carvings. Above the window are carvings of angels and to either side long stone
ladders with angels climbing up them. Below the window a battlemented parapet
supports a statue and beneath this, on either side of the door, are statues of
St Peter and St Paul. Restoration work in the late 20th century involved
cleaning with electronically controlled intermittent water sprays and ammonium
carbonate poultices. One of the figures which had lost its head and shoulders
was replaced. The sculptures on the West front have been interpreted as
representing "spiritual ascent through the virtue of humility and descent
through the vice of pride" and Christ as the Man of Sorrow and the
Antichrist. During the 1990s a major restoration and cleaning work were carried
out on the exterior stonework, returning it to the yellow colour hidden under
centuries of dirt. The building has 52 windows, occupying about 80 percent
of the wall space. The east end has a square-framed window of seven lights. It
includes a depiction of the nativity made by Clayton and Bell in 1872, and was
presented to the church by the Bath Literary Club.The
window of the Four Evangelists over the northwest door is a memorial to Charles
Empson, who died in 1861. In 2010 a stained glass window was uncovered in the
abbey vaults. The design around the window is by William Burges. The two-stage
central tower is not square but oblong in plan. It has two bell openings on
each side and four polygonal turret pinnacles. The tower is 150 feet
(46 m) high, and is accessed by a staircase of 212 steps. In 1700 the old
ring of six bells was replaced by a new ring of eight. All but the tenor still
survive. In 1770 two lighter bells were added to create the first ring of ten
bells in the diocese. The tenor was recast in 1870. The abbey's tower is now
home to a ring of ten bells, which are – unusually – hung so that the
order of the bells from highest to lowest runs anti-clockwise around the
ringing chamber. The tenor weighs 33 cwt (3,721 lb or 1,688 kg).
The interior fan vaulting ceiling, originally installed by Robert and William
Vertue, was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott between 1864 and 1874. The fan
vaulting provides structural stability by distributing the weight of the roof
down ribs that transfer the force into the supporting columns via the flying
buttresses. Scott's work in the 1870s included the installation of large gas
chandeliers made by the Coventry metalworker Francis Skidmore. They were
converted to electricity in 1979. Within the abbey are 617 wall memorials and
847 floor stones. Many of the monuments in the churchyard were carved between
1770 and 1860 by Reeves of Bath. War memorials include those commemorating the First
Anglo-Afghan War (1841–42), the First World War (1914–18), and the Second World
War (1939–45). The most recent memorial was installed in 1958 to commemorate Isaac
Pitman, the developer of Pitman shorthand, who died in 1897. The first mention
of an organ in the abbey dates to 1634, but nothing is known of that
instrument. The first properly recorded organ in Bath Abbey was built by Abraham
Jorday in 1708. It was modified in 1718 and 1739 by Jordan's son. The
specification recorded in 1800 was one of twenty stops spread over three
manuals. The compasses of the manuals were extended, one and a half octaves of
pedals were added and the instrument renovated in 1802 by John Holland; further
repairs were effected by Flight & Robson in 1826. This instrument was
removed first to the Bishop’s Palace at Wells in 1836, then to St Mary’s
Church, Yatton, where it was subsequently rebuilt and extensively modified. The
abbey's next organ was built in 1836 by John Smith of Bristol, to a
specification of thirty stops over three manuals and pedals. This instrument
was rebuilt on a new gallery in the North Transept by William Hill & Son of
London in 1868, to a specification of forty stops spread over four manuals and
pedals, although the Solo department, which would have brought the total to
well over forty, was not completed. It was mostly removed to the Church of St
Peter and St Paul, Cromer in 1896, the remainder being kept for incorporation
in the new abbey organ. A new organ was supplied to the abbey in 1895 by Norman
and Beard of Norwich. It had 52 stops spread over four manuals and pedals, and
stood divided on two steel beams in the North and South crossing arches, with
the console standing on the floor next to the north-west pier of the crossing.
New cases were to be provided to designs by Brian Oliver of Bath, but were
never executed. Norman & Beard re-erected it in a new case designed by Sir
Thomas Jackson in the North Transept in 1914, with the addition of two stops to
the Pedal. It was again rebuilt by them in 1930, and then by Hill, Norman and
Beard in 1948, which brought the number of stops to 58. In 1972 this was
increased to a total of 65 speaking stops. The Positive division, with its
separate case behind the console, was installed at the same time. Problems
caused by the tonal scheme's lack of coherence – the 1895 pipework
contrasting sharply with that of 1972 – and with reliability, caused by
the wide variety of different types of key actions, all difficult to access,
led to the decision to have the instrument rebuilt yet again.The organ was
totally reconstructed in 1997 by Klais Orgelbau of Bonn, retaining the existing
instrument as far as was possible and restoring it largely to its 1895
condition, although the Positive division was kept. The instrument as it now
stands has 63 speaking stops over four manuals and pedals, and is built largely
on the Werkprinzip principle of organ layout: the case is only one department
deep, except for parts of the Pedal sited at the back rather than the sides of
the case. New 75 percent tin front pipes were made and the case completed
with back, side walls and roof. Pierced panelling executed by Derek Riley of
Lyndale Woodcarving in Saxmundham, Suffolk, was provided to allow sound egress
from the bottom of the case. The old console has been retained but thoroughly
rebuilt with modern accessories and all-new manuals. Twenty-two of the organ's
83 ranks contain some pipework from the 1868 instrument. Four ranks are made up
entirely of 1868 pipework, and 21 contain 1895 pipework. Only two ranks are
entirely of 1895. Forty-eight ranks contain some new pipework, 34 of which are
entirely new. Old wind pressures have been used wherever possible. The old wind
reservoirs have also been restored rather than replaced. The instrument has tracker
key action on the manuals, with electrically assisted tracker action to the
pedals. The stop action is electric throughout. A four-stop continuo organ was
built for the abbey in 1999 by Northampton -based organ builder Kenneth
Tickell. The instrument, contained in a case of dark oak, is portable, and can
be tuned to three pitches: A=440 Hz (modern concert pitch), A=415 Hz
and A=486 Hz. A lever pedal can reduce the stops sounding to only the 8'
stop and, when released, returns the organ to the registration in use before it
was depressed.
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| Bath Abbey |
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| Bath Abbey |
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| some of the detail on the ceiling at Bath Abbey |
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| one of the large stained glass windows in Bath Abbey |
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| another stained glass window in Bath Abbey |
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| more of the detail of the ceiling at Bath Abbey |
While
we were in the Abbey, the rain started coming down! And it looked like it was
not going to stop, so we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel.
It was too wet to go exploring any further! We were able to get a bus back
fairly quickly. By the time we got back to the bus stop near the hotel, the
rain had stopped. Back at the hotel, we relaxed, had a shower and got ready for
dinner in the hotel restaurant. After an enjoyable dinner, we relaxed and watched
TV for a while before turning in. Alison and I shared a room and Keith had a
room to himself as the rooms were not adjoining and Alison did not want to be
in a room not joined to ours.
