Places Reviewed

Review of Bath Abbey: vandalism, criminals, monks and a five star rating for the bell tower (from two Birmingham girls)

October 10, 2024

By Harry Mottram: It’s been a while since I last wandered into Bath Abbey but one afternoon with an hour to kill, instead of browsing jackets in TK Maxx I paid my £7.50 and entered the fine stone portals with an open mind. The first thing that hit me was the space as most of the seating had been cleared for the Shine On Luxmuralis – billed as a ‘spectacular sound and light experience’ that runs until October 26, 2024, it made a big difference. Judging by the photos and clips on social media it lives up to its billing – and it has the added bonus of making the vast interior more open as it was before the Victorians installed fixed pews meaning the space could only be used for services. In the so-called ‘battle of the pews’ many in Bath (together with the Victorian Society) opposed replacing most of the pews with moveable chairs – but now with the pews cleared the space is open for performances and events. Which no doubt George Gilbert Scott would have disagreed with as he designed the pews in the early 1860s as the Abbey was updated and repaired.

Top Man: In the museum or Discovery Centre, there’s a piece of graphics dedicated to Bath’s star pupil. Adelard of Bath is something of mystery as in an era when access to education was restricted with no printed books of formal schools he arose from a humble Anglo Saxon in Bath to greatness as a researcher and scholar when the Normal French ruled England. Born in around 1080 he clearly was a bright student recognised by the Bishop of Wells who encouraged his studies and presumably funded him as he began the translations of Arabic and Greek texts into the standard Latin of the day. He travelled widely when international travel was unusual for ordinary folk visiting France and Italy as well as potentially Palestine learning Arabic in Sicily and introducing their system of numbers 0-10 to the west. A natural philosopher he revolutionised thinking (he thought the world was round) and was clearly centuries ahead of his time when in 1152 he retired to Bath where he died. Now he does need a statue in the city rather than those slave owners.

Top King: The only English monarch to be crowned outside of London was King Edgar who is commemorated in a dazzling stained glass window in the Abbey. The coronation in Bath in 973 AD with his wife Ælfryth on Whit Sunday certainly didn’t have the TV coverage and media interest back then that Charles III had when he became head of state of the UK. It was more likely a low key event after his long wait to inherit his father’s title with both of his brothers dying before him when he slipped on the ermine robe. Edgar was clearly a ruthless and effective military leader and diplomat as he was able to unite most of today’s English kingdoms in a series of campaigns which in my opinion should earn him the title of Edgar the Great.

Vandalism: There’s a rather intimate tomb to one side of the abbey of Sir William Waller and his wife Jane lying on her back while he is half propped up beside her as though in admiration. A fetching scene of courtly love except William’s face has been hacked away by Royalist soldiers in the Civil War who disagreed with his politics in the 17th century when as an army general for Parliament in the conflict he battled against the Cavaliers. The act of vandalising or destroying your opponent’s statues is universal from Bagdad to Afghanistan, and from the Roman Baths next door to William Waller’s disfigured face. Those soldiers had no respect – but it’s a bit late to bring them to book.

Slavery: The Abbey may have been constructed to celebrate the good works of Christianity and the glory of God but there’s a number of memorials to those who did the exact opposite of the teachings of Jesus. Namely the slave owners, who created misery and death to hundreds of thousands of women, children and men who were treated worse than farm animals. Kidnapped in West Africa, many were trafficked across the Atlantic to be slaves. And in the Abbey there is a long list of these criminals as I call them who have their names engraved on memorials instead of those innocent people they enslaved. They include James Maycock of the Paragon and Hannah Alleyne whose son John became a lawyer and an abolitionist. Until recently Bath as a city has turned a blind eye to its slave owning past but finally institutions like the Abbey have at least recognised the injustices.

Heavens above: Apart from the space of the main nave as you enter there is a feeling of lightness. And looking up there are huge stained glass windows and an amazing vaulted ceiling. There’s plenty of information about this aspect of the abbey in the museum and the guide book – but sitting in one of the pews of the choir and crooking my neck and looking upwards I felt quite dizzy. You wonder at how the ceiling was built as it’s so high and so delicate – and I should say light in colour. No gloomy interior here – but heavens above – you can see why some worshipers then and now would have found inspiration for their faith. Sadly I am not a believer but Christianity has so many positive things to give us from the buildings, literature, music, social cohesion and comfort and of course the teachings of Jesus in particular – my favourite being the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Monks at work: The museum or Discovery Centre gives a graphic history of the abbey from its dark age and Saxon origins through the period of its role as a monastic centre and on to the Early Modern era. Seeing so many of the carvings, statues and various relics including some dazzling silver ware up close is so much better than scrolling through a website. And it got me thinking about those early days when it was first consecrated and all the changes it has seen. When the first wooden church was built so much of the Roman baths next door would have been standing. The site itself had been the centre of Roman Bath meaning in a way you can go back another four or so centuries into the site’s past where there was a place of worship – although with different gods of course.

Bell Tower: sadly I didn’t have time to do the tower – so that must wait for another time – although two young women with Birmingham accents told me it was ‘bloody amazing’. Which is a five star review in anybody’s language.

For more on the Abbey visit https://www.bathabbey.org/

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Naked Romans, free hot water and a fabulous model – a review of a visit to the Roman Baths (or the remains of the baths, Victorian restorations and 21st century interpretations)

October 7, 2024

Review: The Roman Baths in Bath

By Harry Mottram: Like so many in the city I just assume the Roman Baths are and always were there and a visit three decades ago will suffice as they don’t change. Wrong. I visited them as a school boy in the 1960s and again when we first had a car in the early 1980s before children and I rather innocently thought they would be un-changed. So much work has gone into restoring what lay hidden before and revealed in diagrams, videos and models how they once looked and were operated. Apart from the classic view of the bath exposed by 19^th century archaeologists looking up towards the mock Roman statues and the Abbey above most of what I remembered has changed.

At around £24.50 a ticket and a queue to enter on a Friday afternoon in October the Romans must have wished they had held onto the rights as over a million people visited the baths last year. That would have bought a lot of chariots, resurfaced the Fosse Way to the coast and paid for a new galley powered cross channel link complete with slaves rowing across the choppy seas and a fast tracked journey to Rome. Instead the billion plus annual revenue helps Bath and North East Somerset Council keep the city and surrounding communities if not coming up roses then at least ticking over.

When I visited a busker in the Abbey Yard was working his way through some 1970s rock classics from Queen to Canned Heat – the sounds of which echoed over the main bath adding a slightly quirky tone to the scene as curious Japanese and Indian visitors took selfies and snaps of the faded statues. The weathered statues that look down on the greenish waters which my handset – free with a ticket – explained were Victorian replicas of Romans with Britannia connections. Claudius looked very depressed and the Roman Celtic Goddess Sulis Minerva had a distinctive disapproving expression – perhaps she preferred the music of the 80s and the sounds of Madonna.

As I followed the directions I slowly descended into the labyrinth of chambers where different parts of the excavated portals of the Roman Baths were displayed and placed in more or less the original positions – with projections and diagrams to illustrate how they would have been assembled. The overall feeling I had was a sense of disbelief that the Celtic and Romano British inhabitants of Bath allowed the baths, temples and buildings to sink into silt, neglect and collapse when the legions left. The idea that a wattle and daub round house with no under-floor heating, running water, toilets and tiled roofs was superior to the legacy of four centuries of Mediterranean civic engineering is a mystery. It was to take centuries for Bath to recover as a spa with paved streets and civic buildings that matched those of the Latin rulers.

There is a superb model of how the baths once looked and apart from being great PR for the Romans it’s also a wonderful piece of model making. The gilded head of Minerva is impressive in its glass case despite the best efforts of a Dark Age vandal to bash it in, and the head of the Gorgon – or take your pick from Oceanus, Borvo, Jupiter or some yet to be discovered Romano British water god – is displayed with a projection filling in the missing parts. It once looked down on all who entered the baths from the 100 foot high archway that once dominated the structures.

Videos of Romans or indeed Bathonians in togas gave a flavour of what the inhabitants wore and did for a living were displayed in various spots around the museum – including I might add some naked bathers– spoiler alert – posed by actors and all very modestly shot. But of course the Romans were rather more open about their bodies compared to prudish us in the 21^st century with their communal toilets and naked bathing.

Countless coins and other everyday items from Roman Bath were displayed – but the star attraction was the spring with its steaming waters and drain taking excess water away to the River Avon. The King’s Bath not so. When I last visited it was open and at a higher level of water so you could dabble your hands in it. Fenced off so the pigeons can’t make its columns their roost of choice, it was a slightly sad spectacle with its limpid green surface- for understandably health and safety reasons. And that was what was missing – a chance to paddle, dabble or simple take a splash in the baths – with a handy slave to hold your toga as one dives in. With over a million visitors a year I suppose the baths would be rather difficult to patrol for the life guards so it’s more a chance to observe them rather than sample them. But you can have a cup of the health giving waters – which I did – and was surprised how refreshing a warm cup of mineral water can give you an inner glow on a cold October day. Those Romans were definitely onto something when they kicked out the Celts and built the baths around the hot waters bubbling out of the ground.

For more on the baths visit https://www.romanbaths.co.uk/