BATH
HISTORY |
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The site of the main spring was treated as a shrine by the Celts, and
dedicated to the goddess Sulis, whom the Romans 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").
During the Roman occupation of Britain increasingly grand temples and
bathing complexes were built, including the Great Bath. Rediscovered
gradually from the 18th century onward, they have become one of the city's
main attractions. Toward the end of the Roman occupation, the settlement
around the baths was given defensive walls. |
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After Britannia left the Roman Empire urban life declined across the
country. Though the great Roman baths at Bath fell into disrepair, there is
evidence of some continued use of the hot springs. The Anglo-Saxon name for
the place was Bašum, Bašan or Bašon, meaning 'at the baths', from which the
present name comes. From its Saxon name comes the theory that Bath is the
location of the Battle of Mons Badonicus, where King Arthur led the Britons
to victory over the Saxons. Better documented is the Battle of Deorham, in
577, in which Ceawlin of Wessex drove a wedge to the sea and split the
Romano-British forces, leading to the fall of Bath soon after.
In 675 Osric, King of the Hwicce, established a monastic house at Bath which
probably used the walled area as its precinct. King Offa of Mercia gained
this monastery in 781 and rebuilt the church, which was dedicated to St.
Peter. Bath had become a royal possession. The old Roman street pattern
having been lost, King Alfred laid out the town afresh, leaving its south-eastern
quadrant as the abbey precinct.
King William Rufus granted the city to a royal physician, John of Tours, who
became Bishop of Wells and Abbot of Bath in 1088, with permission to move
the see of Somerset from Wells to Bath. Bishop John therefore became the
first Bishop of Bath. He planned and began a much larger church as his
cathedral, to which was attached a priory, with the bishop's palace beside
it. New baths were built around the three springs.
Later bishops preferred Wells, which regained cathedral status jointly with
Bath. By the 15th century Bath Cathedral was badly dilapidated. Oliver King,
Bishop of Bath and Wells, decided in 1500 to rebuild it on a smaller scale.
The new cathedral was completed just a few years before Bath Priory was
dissolved in 1539.
Henry VIII considered the cathedral redundant and it was allowed to become
derelict, but it was restored as the city's parish church in the Elizabethan
period, when the city revived as a spa. The baths were improved and the city
began to attract the aristocracy in the bathing seasons. Bath was granted
city status in 1590.
There was much rebuilding in the Stuart period, but this was eclipsed by the
massive expansion of the city in Georgian times. The old town within the
walls was largely rebuilt also. This was a response to the continuing demand
for elegant accommodation for the city's fashionable visitors, for whom Bath
had become a pleasure resort as well as a spa. The builders John Wood,
father and son, laid out the new quarters in rational streets and squares
whose identical facades gave an impression of palatial scale and classical
decorum. The creamy gold of Bath stone further unified the city. The early
18th century saw Bath acquire its first purpose-built theatre, pump room and
assembly rooms. As Master of Ceremonies Beau Nash presided over the city's
social life from 1705 until his death in 1761. He drew up a code of
behaviour for public entertainments. However the city declined as a
fashionable resort in the 19th century. |
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