Bath
 Cathedrals |  Abbeys |  Roman Britain |
Bath is the most complete and best-preserved Georgian city in Britain, and more than any other city in the country its squares, crescents and terraces were planned in accordance with a coherent vision inspired by commitment to a particular architectural style. With a history dating from the 1st century AD it is also one of Britain's oldest cities, famous since Roman times for its warm mineral springs. The combined Roman/Georgian splendour of Bath instils in visitors the feeling of travelling back through time.
According to legend, the city's origins go back to 860BC when Prince Bladud, father of the King Lear immortalised by Shakespeare, founded a settlement on the site. The real history of Bath begins in AD44, when the Romans established a township on the site, quickly recognising the therapeutic value of the local spa waters.
Elaborate baths were built near a temple dedicated to Sulis Minerva; Sul was an ancient Celtic god and Minerva was the Roman goddess of healing. Known as Aquae Sulis (Water of Sul), the Roman settlement flourished until the 5th century when the legions were recalled to Italy. With the exception of Hadrian's Wall, the spectacular bathing complex is Britain's greatest memorial to the Romano-British period. In these early centuries AD, Aquae Sulis spa became a leading health resort and a fashionable town in the Roman province. However, in 410 the emperor Honorius pulled his legions out of Britain for the defence of Rome against the approaching hordes of Alaric the Goth, thereby leaving Britain to fend for itself against Picts, Scots, Franks and in particular the marauding Saxons. In time, the magnificent complex of baths rapidly fell into disrepair for the Saxon invaders, used only to living in wattle and daub huts, had no use for the luxuries of Bath, no understanding of drainage systems and no comprehension of why anyone should desire regular hot baths.
After the Battle of Dyrham in 577 Aquae Sulis was nothing more than a frontier post of the invading Saxon armies of Ceawlin. In 676, the Saxon charters record that King Osric granted to the abbess Bertana a large area of land for the erection and endowment of a monastery of holy virgins on the settlement. By 758 it appears to have been superseded by a monastery of monks dedicated to St Peter, described in 957 as being of ‘wondrous workmanship'. Here it was in 973 that the young Edgar was crowned first king of all England, St Dunstan, formerly Abbot of Glastonbury and later Archbishop of Canterbury, performed the anointing rite. The coronation was by far the most important event to have touched Bath since the Roman occupation. Saxon Bath was virtually ruled by the Benedictine monks, who had incorporated the hot springs within their monastic buildings, but its importance lay beyond the purely ecclesiastical. The town was situated on the borders of the powerful kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex, and being neutral territory was an ideal place for Saxon kings to draw up charters and formulate peace treaties. It also stood on major trade routes and was the site of a palace and royal mint.
After the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 peace still proved elusive, and in 1088 Bath was partly destroyed by Robert de Mowbray, an enemy of King William Rufus. The king conferred the see of Bath on Jean de Villula of Tours, a church dignitary who was also an outstanding physician; he undertook construction of a huge cathedral church and an imposing residence for himself called the Bishop's Bower. This splendid church was destroyed by fire in 1137, during the civil wars that plagued King Stephen's reign, although restored at a later date. During the reign of King John (1199-1216), the monastery declined and was ruthlessly plundered. The 13th and 14th century witnessed a decline in Bath's fortunes mirrored by the abbey - the splendid new Wells Cathedral took over as the bishop's seat and headquarters of the episcopal see.
Bishop Oliver King, who was responsible for the construction of the present graceful cathedral, inaugurated reforms in 1499. The manner in which the Abbey was conceived is vividly depicted on its west front, which records a dream or vision experienced by the bishop soon after visiting the de Villula's ruined edifice. He ‘saw' the Holy Trinity and a ladder of angels with a crowned olive tree at its foot, while a stentorian voice boomed "Let an olive establish the crown and a king restore the church." The bishop took the imagery and language to be a direct play on his name, and he appointed Prior Birde to implement his vision. The prior died in 1525 leaving the completion of the work to his successor, William Holleway, but hardly was the project completed than it was threatened by the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536. Prior Holleway was dismissed in 1539 and the Abbey offered to the citizens of Bath for a mere 500 marks - they refused it and the building was stripped of its lead, glass and bells. It continued to deteriorate until Queen Elizabeth visited Bath in 1574, and she was so concerned by its mouldering state that a national appeal was launched enabling Bishop Montague to roof the choir and undertake restoration in 1609. During the Civil War of 1642-9 there was one notable battle in Bath, on Lansdown Hill in 1643, when the Cromwellians were victorious, this was the last occasion on which Bath experienced armed conflict until it was bombed during the 2nd World War.
The popularity of Bath's healing waters were rediscovered after Queen Anne's visit in 1702; society flocked to the town in ever increasing numbers. The revival of Bath's fame as a spa town is due as much to the appearance of Richard ‘Beau' Nash, who took on the role of Master of Ceremonies, as to the Royal visit. His personality, wilful authority, caprice, common sense and naked impudence influenced well-bred people to an amazing degree. As Master of Ceremonies Nash immediately instituted a series of reforms and formulated a famous set of civilising rules for society. He drew fashionable and influential people to the city and made Bath synonymous with high fashion, polite society, order and discipline. Nash never married, but kept a series of mistresses, was often over-generous and died in poverty aged 86; the corporation put on a suitable display of pomp for his funeral.
While Nash had converted Bath from being brash and raucous to genteel behaviour, and had set social standards for the whole nation, it was up to others to leave more tangible memorials of the city's golden age. The man who allied his vision to economic good sense was Ralph Allen, who brought to Bath the architect John Wood, a man who possessed a similar boundless ambition and settled in the city in 1727. Wood believed that the proportions of classical architecture were divinely inspired and that the presence of noble buildings could serve as a moral corrective. Drawing on Roman and Palladian principles, he conceived of a city where houses were not haphazard jumbles of isolated units but co-existed as graceful terraces, crescents and squares, all built from local Bath stone, the beautiful pale oolitic rock found in the quarries recently opened up by Ralph Allen. The severity of strict symmetry was to be softened by green lawns, sweeping cornices and subtle contours - the success of this conception is there for present-day visitors to marvel at. No other English city can display such a rare combination of composure of design and decorative vivacity.
The creation of Bath as a showpiece of Georgian architecture was the work of John Wood, under his guidance a new city emerged. Successive architects imitated and developed his style, most notably his son John Wood the younger, whose work is said by some to represent the highest point of Palladian achievement in Bath. John Wood the elder was responsible for Queen Square, the Parades and the Circus, his son the Royal Crescent, the Upper Assembly Rooms and the Hot Baths.
The manners and attitudes of Regency Bath are memorably recorded in the novels of Jane Austen, a frequent visitor and resident of the city. Nineteen chapters of Northanger Abbey and nine of Persuasion are set in Bath - her precise location of scenes brings the city to life and gives us the exact flavour of the various parts of the town. After a decline in Bath's fortunes as a fashionable resort during the Regency period, the spa became popular again towards the end of the 19th century. The new industrial age was ushered in during the Victorian period, and prosaic but profitable concerns such as engineering, printing and brassmaking spread along the banks of the Avon. During the 20th century light industry continued to develop in Bath, including the production of the famous ‘Bath Olivers', or Dr Oliver's biscuits. In 1925 the Bath Act governed the construction of new buildings in Bath, ruling that all must be faced with a substance resembling Bath stone, the original now being too expensive to use, thus the city maintains its very individual appearance to this day.