Bath is a delightful city to visit, full of culture, history and charm. It may be a relatively small city by comparison with others but it has a great deal to offer the visitor.
The Celts revered Bath’s healing springs as being sacred to Sulis their goddess it was the Romans who founded the first real community there in the 1st centuary AD. It was known by them as ‘Aquae Sulis’, translated as Waters of Sulis. After the Roman town came occupations of the area by the Saxons followed by a medieval settlement all centred around the magical healing spas. During the Georgian era the city flourished under the directorship of Beau Nash known as Bath’s uncrowned King.
The baths main spring produces a massive quarter of a million gallons of water each day at a n approximate temperature of 45 degrees C. Romans built a reservoir around this spring to collect the water for their bath complex. This is now known as King’s Bath. King’s bath was regarded as being sacred and its history can be found in the adjoining museum which houses a collection of Roman artefacts dropped into the bath in the same way that today people throw coins into fountains. Many important finds were made at the site of the baths.
At the heart of the Roman Baths was the Great Bath, a 70 foot long construction which still stands to day and is fed by the original Roman plumbing. Near to this bath a temple to the goddess Sulis was constructed.
If it is museums that you find interesting there are several that Bath has to offer. The Holburne museum has exhibits of decorative arts, paintings and more modern work, it also offers a craft and study centre.
Sally Lunn’s museum is another fascinating insight into life in bath, it is home to the kitchen museum, an exhibit of the history of kitchens. The museum is housed in Bath’s oldest remaining house, built in 1480. Sally Lunn was a baker who lived there in the 1700’s and who produced some fine wares. This is a fascinating museum to explore and you can still buy produce made to her secret recipes today.
Camden Works Museum is dedicated to a Victorian family run business and re-creates the works of the Bowler family using the original fixtures and fittings. There is also a history of Bath Stone, a gloriously golden coloured building stone mined locally and used for the construction of bath from the time of the Romans.
Another interesting museum is the Bath Postal Museum. Here you can learn about how our postal system came into being and trace the way in which correspondence was carried throughout the country from the early days of clay tablets of ancient times right up to the modern electronic methods employed today.
Bath Abbey provides an excellent example of 15th Centaury Gothic craftsmanship. The third building of its type constructed on the site, the abbey boasts a magnificent 162 foot high tower which soars above the skyline and stands beside a Roman statue which presides over the Great Bath. A truly magnificent building and a popular attraction whether you are religiously minded or not.
A further site not to be missed is the majestic sweep of Royal Crescent. Thirty 18th C houses curve around this street making it one of the countries most elegant. You can visit one of these houses which has been carefully restored and re-furnished to re-create it’s 18th century appearance.
I cannot speak for the shopping in Bath as I have never shopped in the main areas, I have only ever been to view the sites. I am however reliably informed that it is like many other cities with a full range of the most popular stores and that it is not over commercialised. I’ll have to take someone else’s word for that.
Overall Bath is worthy of at least a weekend away, there are plenty of hotels both in and outside of the city, B&B is also available. I won’t recommend any particular establishment to stay at as it would be unfair of me. What I can say however is that Bath is one city too good to miss.
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