Bath, Somerset

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Coordinates: 51.38°N 2.36°W

Bath ( /ˈbɑːθ/ or /ˈbæθ/) is a city in the ceremonial county of Somerset in the south west of England. It is situated 97 miles (156 km) west of London and 13 miles (21 km) south-east of Bristol. The population of the city is 83,992.^[1] It was granted city status byRoyal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in 1590,^[2] and was made a county borough in 1889 which gave it administrative independence from its county, Somerset. The city became part of Avon when that county was created in 1974. Since 1996, when Avon was abolished, Bath has been the principal centre of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES).

The city was first established as a spa resort with the Latin name, Aquae Sulis ("the waters of Sulis") by the Romans in AD 43 although verbal tradition suggests that Bath was known before then.^[3] They built baths and a temple on the surrounding hills of Bath in the valley of the River Avon around hot springs, which are the only ones naturally occurring in the United Kingdom.^[4] Edgar was crowned king of England at Bath Abbeyin 973.^[5] Much later, it became popular as a spa resort during the Georgian era, which led to a major expansion that left a heritage of exemplary Georgian architecture crafted from Bath Stone.

The City of Bath was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1987. The city has a variety of theatres, museums, and other cultural and sporting venues, which have helped to make it a major centre for tourism, with over one million staying visitors and 3.8 million day visitors to the city each year.^[6] The city has two universities and several schools and colleges. There is a large service sector, and growing information and communication technologies and creative industries, providing employment for the population of Bath and the surrounding area.

[edit]History

[edit]Iron Age and Roman

The Great Bath at the Roman Baths. The entire structure above the level of the pillar bases is a later reconstruction.

Main article: Aquae Sulis

The hills around Bath such as Bathampton Down saw human activity from the Mesolithicperiod.^[7][8] Several Bronze Age round barrows were opened by John Skinner in the 18th century.^[9] Bathampton Camp may have been a univallate Iron Age hill fort or stock enclosure.^[10][11] A Long barrow site believed to be from the Beaker people was flattened to make way for RAF Charmy Down.^[12]

Archaeological evidence shows that the site of the Roman Baths' main spring was treated as a shrine by the Iron Age Britons,^[13] and was dedicated to the goddess Sulis, whom theRomans identified with Minerva; however, the name Sulis continued to be used after the Roman invasion, leading to the town's Roman name of Aquae Sulis (literally, "the waters of Sulis").^[14] Messages to her scratched onto metal, known as curse tablets, have been recovered from the Sacred Spring by archaeologists.^[15] These curse tablets were written inLatin, and usually laid curses on people by whom the writer felt they had been wronged. For example, if a citizen had his clothes stolen at the baths, he would write a curse, naming the suspects, on a tablet to be read by the Goddess Sulis Minerva.

The temple was constructed in 60–70 AD and the bathing complex was gradually built up over the next 300 years.^[4] During the Roman occupation of Britain, and possibly on the instructions of Emperor Claudius,^[16] engineers drove oak piles into the mud to provide a stable foundation and surrounded the spring with an irregular stone chamber lined with lead. In the 2nd century, the spring was enclosed within a wooden barrel-vaulted building,^[13] which housed the calidarium (hot bath), tepidarium (warm bath), and frigidarium (cold bath).^[17] The city was given defensive walls, probably in the 3rd century.^[18] After the failure of Roman authority in the first decade of the 5th century, the baths fell into disrepair and were eventually lost due to silting up.^[19]

[edit]Post-Roman and Mediaeval

Bath Abbey

Bath may have been the site of the Battle of Mons Badonicus (c. 500 AD), where King Arthuris said to have defeated the Anglo-Saxons, although this is disputed.^[20] The city fell to theWest Saxons in 577 after the Battle of Deorham;^[21][21] the Anglo-Saxon poem known as The Ruin may describe the appearance of the Roman site about this time.^[22] A monastery was set up in Bath at an early date – reputedly by Saint David, though more probably in 675 byOsric, King of the Hwicce, perhaps using the walled area as its precinct.^[23][24] Nennius, a ninth-century historian, mentions a "Hot Lake" in the land of the Hwicce, which was along the Severn, and adds "It is surrounded by a wall, made of brick and stone, and men may go there to bathe at any time, and every man can have the kind of bath he likes. If he wants, it will be a cold bath; and if he wants a hot bath, it will be hot". Bede also describes hot baths in the geographical introduction to the Ecclesiastical History in terms very similar to those of Nennius.^[25] King Offa of Mercia gained control of this monastery in 781 and rebuilt the church, which was dedicated to St. Peter.^[26] By the 9th century the old Roman street pattern had been lost and Bath had become a royal possession, with King Alfred laying out the town afresh, leaving its south-eastern quadrant as the abbey precinct.^[27] Edgar of England was crowned king of England in Bath Abbey in 973.^[5] The Anglo-Saxons called the town Baðum, Baðan or Baðon, meaning "at the baths," and this was the source of the present name.

King William Rufus granted the city to a royal physician, John of Tours, who became Bishop of Wells and Abbot of Bath in 1088.^[28][29]It was papal policy for bishops to move to more urban seats, and he translated his own from Wells to Bath.^[30] He planned and began a much larger church as his cathedral, to which was attached a priory, with the bishop's palace beside it.^[28] New baths were built around the three springs. However, later bishops returned the episcopal seat to Wells, while retaining the name of Bath in their title as theBishop of Bath and Wells.