Bath

Bath is a city of rich history and heritage with well-preserved remains of several eras of English history still visible to the public. First and foremost it is well known for its Roman remains. Hadrian’s Wall in the north of England and the Roman baths in this city (hence the name) are the most outstanding Roman remains in the country. It is one of the few towns of Roman occupation which still bears any visible evidence of Roman Britain times. Although the bath houses have been reconstructed multiple times, it still has the feel of a Roman British town exemplifying the influence of Rome on southern English towns and giving some idea of the henceforward connection that Britain would have with the continent of Europe as a whole after the Roman occupation.

The city of Bath originated and developed around its hot spring waters. It is a city with a variety of Roman, medieval and Georgian architecture, with many great buildings and churches formed out of the famous golden colored Bath stone. The city was originally founded, in the valley of the River Avon around the naturally occurring hot springs where Romans build baths and a temple during the time of their occupation. The Romans originally named the city Aquae Sulis in honor of the Celtic goddess Sulis, whom the Romans identified with the goddess Minerva. The Romans constructed a temple in 60-70 AD and the bathing complex which surrounds it was gradually built up over the next 300 years. In order to build these baths and temples, engineers drove oak piles into the mud to provide a stable foundation and surrounded the spring with an irregular stone chamber lined with lead (Morgan 26). Later, in the 2^nd century, the spring was enclosed with a wooden building which came to house the calidarium (hot bath), tepidarim (warm bath) and frigidarium (cold bath). Defensive walls were also built up around the city. After the Roman downfall and withdrawal in the 5^th century the baths fell into disrepair and were eventually lost due to silting up. They gradually became completely covered in alluvial mud and hidden from sight for over a thousand years to be rediscovered only towards the end of the 19^th century (Cunliffe 4).

While the baths themselves decayed, the town itself continued to develop. Around 760 King Offa founded an Abbey dedicated to St. Peter in which Edgar was crowned king in 973. This alone is sufficient proof of the enormous importance of Bath in times even after Roman occupation. In the early 1100s new baths were built around the three springs. With the improvement of both the Abbey and the rebuilding of the baths, Bath was eventually granted city status in 1590 (Cunliffe 6). Several areas of the city continued to undergo development and improvement during the Stuart period and this only increased during Georgian times in response to the number of visitors who traveled to the spa and resort town (Borsay 22). While today the baths may not look very appealing, in their time they ultimately made Bath one of the most popular holiday towns of its day.

During Georgian times, architects John Wood the Elder and John Wood the Younger laid out new quarters in streets and squares and participated in the building of several massive construction projects such as The Circus, The Royal Crescent and later Pulteney Bridge. During WWII Bath suffered three major air raids in retaliation for RAF raids on the Germans. Over 400 people were killed and more than 19,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Houses in the Royal Crecent, Circus and Paragon were burnt out (Borsay 73). All have since been reconstructed and regeneration work is continuing. Just like so many other monuments or towns which have been reconstructed in Great Britain to give a feel of the past, Bath literally gives visitors a peek into some of the greatest and most shaping events of British history—such as the Roman occupation.

Works Cited

Borsay, Peter. The Image of Georgian Bath, 1700-2000: Towns, Heritage, and History. Oxford University Press, 2000.

Cunliffe, Barry. "The Roman Baths at Bath: The Excavations 1969-75." Britannia 7 (1976): 1- 32.

Morgan, Kenneth O. The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain. London: Oxford University Press, 2000.