Bet You didn’t know this about Bath

Most of us will know that Bath is a stunning city with famous natural spas and was once home to Jane Austen but the city holds more fascinating facts that are less well known unless you live and work here. Here are some lesser known but equally awesome facts about the city of Bath:

  • Farmer’s markets are now incredibly popular right across the UK but it’s a little-known fact that the first ever farmer’s market was held by Bath in 1987. There is still a market held in the centre every Saturday morning.
  • Uranus was actually discovered in Bath. William Herschel was an astronomer who discovered the planet whilst using his telescope in the back garden of his house on New King Street not far away from Building Survey Bath based Sam Conveyancing.
  • Jane Austen might be the talk of the town but Mary Shelley came to Bath to find inspiration for finishing her book ‘Frankenstein’.
  • Only ten years ago, under the Gainsborough Bath Spa, 17,500 Roman coins were uncovered.

Image Credit

  • Locals will know that the city has its own currency called the Bath Oliver. It can be used in coupon form to claim discounts at local businesses.
  • Bath is the only city in the UK where the whole city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is because it in the enviable position of having Roman, 18th and 19th century architecture.
  • The Circus has the same diameter as Stonehenge and was built to represent the rising sun.
  • The Royal Crescent was built to represent the setting sun.
  • Bath has hot springs due to the fact that the city sits on the mouth of a dormant volcano! Thankfully the volcano has been dead for many thousands of years but the thermal heat remains and makes for a great natural bathing spot.
  • The Romans built a temple over the springs when they first arrived. Early Britons had already made the site a shrine. It was the Romans though who built up a number of public baths. The city continued to thrive and received its Royal Charter from Elizabeth I in 1590.
  • Bath Abbey was chosen as the site for the coronation of England’s first ever king. King Edgar was crowned there in 973 and the event was the start of our coronation procedures and traditions.
  • The Abbey was the last great medieval cathedral to be constructed in England. It began in 1499 but wasn’t completed until 1616. There were previous churches on the site before the abbey was built, the sit having had religious connections for 1,200 years.

Image Credit

  • The impressive Ladders of Angels that greets visitors on the west front was the result of a dream. The Bishop of Bath had dreamt of angels descending and ascending all around him.
  • Only Westminster Abbey in London displays more wall tablets than Bath Abbey. There are 1,508 memorials inside the Abbey and you don’t have to be rich or influential to be commemorated here. All types of people can feature, as long as they were loved and did good works for the community for example.

 

Author: Kei Taylor

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.