The Little Book of Bath E-Book

Mike Dean

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 256

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Did you Know? - The first postage stamp in the world was issued in Bath – by mistake! - Bath's Royal Victoria Park contains two stone vases originally intended as gifts from Napoleon Bonaparte to Josephine, who became his first wife. - The thermal waters of Bath are the only truly hot springs in Britain. - According to legend, the healing springs of Bath were discovered by pigs. Bath is one of the most visited cities in the world and countless books have told the history of its beautiful buildings and parks – yet the chances are that this fact-packed compendium will enhance your knowledge further. From ancient Roman curses to the discovery of a planet from a back garden, and from the arrest of Jane Austen's aunt to the pub visited by Charles Dickens, The Little Book of Bath is full of surprises. Perfect for dipping into as well as reading cover to cover, here is the Bath few people get to know!

Leseprobe

First published in 2017

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2017

All rights reserved

© Mike Dean, 2017

The right of Mike Dean to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7509 8200 9

Original typesetting by The History Press

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Introduction

1. Some Facts and Figures

2. People

3. Getting Around

4. Bath at Work

5. Cultural and Literary Bath

6. The Natural World

7. Belligerent Bath

8. Spires, Saints and Spooks

9. Crime and Punishment

10. The Social Scene

11. Ceremonial and Sporting Bath

12. In the Street

13. Health and Education

14. On this Day in Bath

Bibliography

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writing of this book would not have been possible without the help of numerous people. In particular, I would like to express my thanks to some of my friends and colleagues in Bath Parade Guides for their interest and for allowing me to access their considerable store of collective knowledge. Thanks also to Colin Johnston, Principal Archivist at Bath Record Office, and the staff for their skill and patience, to Graham Champken and Mick Butler for their help and advice with illustrations and to Nicola Guy and Beth Amphlett at The History Press for encouraging me to write this book. Also to my wife, Gwyneth, for her input in the form of support, ideas and suggestions. To all these, and others, I offer my gratitude. Any errors or omissions are entirely my responsibility.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Dean is a retired primary school teacher and a registered ‘Blue Badge’ Tour Guide for the West of England. A graduate of Bristol University, his hobbies include reading, walking, music and travel. He is passionately interested in sailing ships and in the folklore of the West Country. This is his first book.

INTRODUCTION

Visitors to Bath come for all kinds of reasons – the Georgian architecture, the Roman Baths, the cultural and historical associations, the shopping, to name just a few. Whatever their reasons, however, Bath rarely fails to captivate, as the city has something for everyone. Over its 2,000 years of existence it has seen and experienced a great deal, and the evidence of its history is still there to be enjoyed by those who are prepared to look. Even those who think they know Bath well can make unexpected discoveries around the next corner or pick up some nugget of new information.

For example:

The Orange Grove, behind Bath Abbey, has nothing to do with the fruit. It was named because of the visit in 1734 of William, Prince of the Dutch House of Orange, who came to Bath to take the ‘water cure’.

As well as its grand Georgian architecture, Bath has its share of brutalist buildings, such as Manvers Street Police Station (1962), the Hilton Hotel (1973) and the Bus Station (2009), which has famously been compared to a baked bean tin.

On a visit to Bath in 1794, the great composer Joseph Haydn wrote a canon in honour of Turk, a dog who belonged to Venanzio Rauzzini, the Director of Music in the city at the time.

Bath is the possessor of the only hot geothermal springs in Britain, with a temperature of more than 40°C. To qualify as a ‘hot’ spring, the water must be above body temperature (36.9°C).

The city has its own local currency, known as the ‘Bath Oliver’, which takes the form of a voucher that can be exchanged for local goods and services. There has been a suggestion that it should be replaced with a ‘Bath Pound’ (like the ‘Bristol Pound’ used by Bath’s neighbouring city).

More than 12,000 votive offerings, thrown there in Roman times, have been recovered from the Sacred Spring in the Roman Baths. Many are on display in the Baths Museum. There are also more than a hundred ‘curse tablets’, inscribed on lead and dating from the second to the fourth centuries AD, almost all of which are asking for retribution against wrongdoers.

This book does not lay claim to be a history of Bath, nor to be exhaustive or definitive, and anyone who wishes to delve more deeply into the background of this fascinating city is encouraged to consult some of the many excellent and well-researched volumes that have been produced over the years. What I have attempted to do here is to compile a collection of interesting, unusual (and in some cases, bizarre) information which I hope will prove of interest to the reader, whether a visitor or someone who is already familiar with Bath. Any collection such as this must inevitably be subjective, and cannot cover everything, so if I have not included a particular favourite of yours, I can only apologise, and would be happy to hear from you. All the information is, to the best of my knowledge, accurate at the time of writing.

1

SOME FACTS AND FIGURES

WHERE IS BATH?

Bath stands at Latitude N 51° 23´, W 02° 22´, and at its centre is 192ft (58.5m) above sea level. The major cities in the world with the closest co-ordinates to Bath are Bristol, England, and Leipzig, Germany. Bath’s population is currently (2017) around 89,000, and it lies within the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), in the historic county of Somerset. It stands near the southern edge of the Cotswolds in the valley of the river Avon and covers an area of about 11 square miles (approx. 28.5 sq. km.)

It has formal status as a city, and has a mayor who is chosen annually by the elected councillors. Bath is one of the oldest parliamentary constituencies in the country, having existed since 1295, and sends one member to Parliament.

Bath’s principal industry is heritage and cultural tourism, and in 1987 it was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The city welcomes almost 4 million day-visitors per year, and over 1 million who stay for longer. Other major employers include the National Health Service, B&NES Council and the two universities, Bath and Bath Spa. Bath has more than 400 retail shops and several theatres. Its local newspaper is the Bath Chronicle, published weekly.

BY ANY OTHER NAME

During its long history Bath has been known by a variety of names. The Romans called it Aquae Sulis (the ‘Waters of Sulis’) after the deity who was regarded as the guardian of the springs by the Celtic Dobunni tribe who occupied the area before the Romans came. It was also sometimes known by the name of Aquae Calidae (‘Hot Waters’).

During Saxon times there were several names: Akemanceaster (which may derive from the ‘aquae’ part of Bath’s Roman name; the Roman road named Akeman Street ran nearby and may originally have linked with Bath). Later in the Saxon period the name was changed to Bathanceaster and then to Hat Batha (or Bathum).

Bath is also a serious candidate for being the ‘Badon’ or ‘Caer Badon’ where the semi-mythical King Arthur is said to have fought his most famous battle, in which he defeated the Saxons. In his Historia Brittonum (c. 830) the Welsh monk Nennius mentions ‘the Baths of Badon’.

The sixteenth/seventeenth-century writer and topographer William Camden (1551–1623), in his great work Britannia, the first systematic survey of Great Britain and Ireland, quotes several historical names for Bath, including Badiza, Bathonia, Yr Ennaint Twymin (‘the city in the warm vale’) and Caer Palladur (‘the City of Pallas’). ‘Pallas’ was a name, or title, sometimes given to the goddess Athena, who is, of course, the Greek equivalent of the Roman goddess Minerva, firmly linked to Bath.

THE POPULATION OF BATH

The following figures are approximate, but indicate how Bath’s population has grown over the centuries:

1300

800

1400

1,000

1500

1,200

1600

2,000

1700

3,000

1800

32,000

1900

65,000

2000

83,000

2011

88,000

TOWNS THAT ARE TWINNED WITH BATH

Aix-en-Provence: A city-commune in the south of France, about 19 miles (30km) north of Marseilles. It has its own springs and the Romans called it ‘Aquae Sextiae’. The fact that it is also a spa town led to its twinning with Bath.

Alkmaar: A city in the province of north Holland, it is well-known for its traditional cheese market. John Lennon’s first guitar was made here and there is a museum to The Beatles. The twinning connection came about because the citizens of Bath held fundraising events to support the people of Alkmaar who had suffered during the German occupation.

Braunschweig (Brunswick): A city in Lower Saxony, Germany, it is a major centre for scientific research and development. The link between the two cities was established shortly after the Second World War as part of a government initiative designed to bring together young people from England and Germany.

Kaposvár: A city in south western Hungary, its name means ‘castle of gates’. Thermal waters were discovered here in the 1960s and the two cities were twinned in 1989.

Beppu: A city in the Ōita Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan, like Bath, it is famous for its hot springs (‘onsen’ in Japanese).

Bath also has a historic partnership agreement with Manly, a seaside suburb of Sydney, Australia. It was given its name by (then) Captain Arthur Phillip, first Governor of New South Wales, who declared that the ‘confidence and manly bearing’ of the local population led to his naming the place Manly Cove.

In addition, the suburbs of Batheaston and Bathford are twinned with Oudun and Artannes-sur-Indre (both in France) respectively.

PLACES IN THE USA NAMED AFTER BATH

Bath, California

Bath, Illinois

Bath, Indiana

Bath, Maine

Bath, Michigan

Bath, New Hampshire

Bath, New York State

Bath, North Carolina

Bath, Pennsylvania

Bath, South Carolina

Bath, South Dakota

Bath, West Virginia

Bath County, Kentucky

Bath County, Virginia

THE SEVEN HILLS OF BATH

Rome is built on seven hills; Bath is surrounded by seven hills. They are:

1. Beechen Cliff, with its heavily wooded slopes, provides a dramatic backdrop to the view to the south of the city. Immortalised by Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey as the place where Catherine Morland takes her walk with Tilneys, it gives superb views over the city and is part of Bath’s Skyline Walk.

2. Southdown has much interwar and post-war development. The area is dominated by High Barrow Hill (known locally as Round Hill), which has been kept as an open recreational area.

3. Lansdown (meaning ‘the long hill’) lies to the north east. In 1643 the Battle of Lansdown, between Royalist and Parliamentarian forces, was fought here, and there is a monument to the Royalist commander Sir Bevil Grenville. Today the area has football fields and a famous racecourse.

4. Kelston Round Hill to the west of the city, crowned with trees, is a landmark which can be seen for miles around. It is also known locally as ‘Kelston Tump’ (‘tump’ is an old dialect word meaning a small rounded hill or mound).

5. Solsbury Hill (or Little Solsbury Hill, as it is sometimes known) is small, flat-topped and the site of an Iron Age hillfort. At 625ft (191m) it stands above the village of Batheaston. It inspired the song ‘Solsbury Hill’, written by rock musician Peter Gabriel and recorded in 1977 as his first solo single.

6. Bathampton Down is a flat limestone plateau that overlooks the city from the north west. It has evidence of human occupation dating back to prehistoric times. On its southern slopes is Claverton Manor, an 1820s mansion that is now the home of the American Museum in Britain.

7. Bathford Hill lies to the east and there was once an ancient ford close by. In the days of horse-drawn traffic, extra horses, needed to pull carriages up the hill, were kept in a nearby field.

LONGEST, SHORTEST, OLDEST, TALLEST …

Bath’s widest street is Great Pulteney Street, at 100ft (30m). It is also the longest, at 1,100ft (335m). (Broad Street, which sounds as if it ought to be one of the widest, is in fact quite narrow. It takes its name from the broadcloth that used to be woven there.) The shortest street in the city is Sunderland Street, at only 75ft (23m) long.

The narrowest alley in the city can be found in Northgate Street, near to the Podium Shopping Centre. This was the medieval Alford Lane, otherwise known as ‘Slippery Lane’. Bath’s widest pavement is the pedestrianised Duke Street, with a width of 50ft (15m) between the houses.

The tallest church spire is that of St John the Evangelist in South Parade, at 222ft (68m).

For many years it was thought that the oldest surviving house in Bath was Sally Lunn’s in North Parade Passage; in fact a plaque on the outside proclaims this, giving a date of 1482. However, in 2000, renovations to Nos 21 and 22 High Street revealed details of a late medieval wattle-and-daub construction that is almost certainly older.

The oldest bridge in Bath is (oddly enough) New Bridge, which dates from 1734. It carries the A4 Bristol road across the river Avon to the west of Bath.

Bath’s most expensive building to date is the Thermae Bath Spa, opened in August 2006 at a cost of around £45 million. The original estimate in 1996 had been £13 million! However, it has been a huge success and contributes over £15 million a year to Bath’s economy.

Bath’s largest park is the Royal Victoria Park on the west side of the city. It covers an area of some 57 acres (23 hectares).

Bath’s oldest public house is probably the Coeur de Lion in Northumberland Place (see p.138).

Bath’s deepest canal lock is located on the Kennet and Avon Canal at Widcombe. At 19ft 5in (5.92m) deep it is the second deepest lock on the British waterways system. Bath Deep Lock, as it is called, was formed when two locks were combined in 1976.

Britain’s longest cycling tunnel is located in Bath. Combe Down Tunnel, part of the Two Tunnels Greenway route, is 1,829 yards (1.7km) in length.

SOME POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT BATH

Here are some common ‘facts’ about Bath, which are not true:

Bath lies in the County of Avon. In fact, County Avon no longer exists. It was created as the result of administrative changes to county boundaries in 1974, but was abolished in 1996, to the satisfaction of many local people. The city is now part of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset.

Jane Austen loved Bath. Although two of her novels, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey, are largely set in Bath, and the city gets a mention in most of her others, Jane was not over-fond of the place, as some of her letters show. In a letter of 1808, she declares: ‘It will be two years tomorrow since we left Bath for Clifton, with what happy feelings of escape’. These feelings might perhaps be partly explained by her aunt’s arrest and subsequent trial in 1799 on a false charge of shoplifting.

A ‘Sally Lunn’ is another name for the Bath Bun. They are, in fact, two different things. The Bath Bun (sometimes known as a ‘London Bath Bun’) is a round, rich bun with a topping of sugar crystals and a lump of sugar baked into its base. The Sally Lunn is larger, light and spongy like a French brioche, and usually eaten with a sweet or savoury topping. The authentic version is made exclusively at Sally Lunn’s Historic Eating House in Bath, to a recipe said to date from the seventeenth century.

Some of Bath’s elegant buildings were designed by Beau Nash. Richard ‘Beau’ Nash (1674–1761) was Bath’s famous eighteenth-century Master of the Ceremonies and the arbiter of taste, fashion and behaviour in the city. Visitors sometimes confuse him with John Nash (1752–1835), the architect responsible for much of the layout of Regency London, as well as such innovative schemes as Blaise Hamlet in Bristol and the Royal Pavilion, Brighton.

‘Shakespeare’s Avon’ runs through Bath on its way to the sea. The river that runs through Bath is indeed the Avon, but not the one associated with the great playwright. That’s the Warwickshire Avon; ours is the Gloucestershire Avon. There are actually five rivers named ‘Avon’ in England, three in Scotland and one in Wales. Canada and New Zealand each have two, while Australia has five. ‘Avon’ (or ‘afon’) is simply an old Celtic word meaning ‘river’.

One of Bath’s Masters of Ceremonies was Beau Brummell. Richard ‘Beau’ Nash is sometimes confused with the Regency dandy George Bryan ‘Beau’ Brummell (1778–1840), arbiter of male fashion and a great friend (for a while) of the Prince Regent, the future George IV. No record seems to exist of a visit to Bath by Brummell, but it is known that he favoured ‘Bath coating’ for his tailcoat. This was a thick, double-raised heavy woollen cloth with a long nap, produced in the city.

The film Oliver! was partly shot in Bath. Many people think that the famous scene in the film version of Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! (1968), where the young Twist looks out of the window to see the street vendors parading their wares and singing ‘Who Will Buy?’, was filmed in the Royal Crescent. In fact, the location was just a large and elaborate film set at Shepperton Studios in Surrey.

Bath Abbey is a cathedral. Despite its impressive size and style, the abbey is not a cathedral – in fact, technically it is no longer even an abbey! During the Middle Ages, the abbey had been part a Benedictine monastery. When Bishop John of Tours decided to establish his seat (or ‘cathedra’) here around 1088, the building became a cathedral priory. However, later bishops preferred to live at Wells, which then became the cathedral for the diocese (Bath and Wells), as it is today. With the Dissolution in 1539 the building became a parish church, and so it remains. Nonetheless, it is still known traditionally as ‘Bath Abbey’.

The abbey’s flying buttresses are ‘fakes’. Visitors have, not infrequently, been heard to declare this. Originally, the abbey did not have flying buttresses because the nave only had a flat roof, so they were not needed. In an attempt to improve the look of the building, flying buttresses were added in the 1830s, but were only of light construction as they did not need to counteract any thrust. Thirty years later, stone fan vaulting was added to the nave, but the buttresses were not strengthened, and in a few years the walls were being pushed apart. New, solid buttresses were added in order to solve the problem. So, yes – they are genuine!

IT HAPPENED FIRST IN BATH

Here are a few of the things that first occurred in Bath:

In 1781, while studying the stars through his home-made telescope in the garden of his house in New King Street, William (later Sir William) Herschel discovered the planet now known as Uranus, along with two of its moons. The following year he was appointed the King’s Astronomer to George III. Herschel was also a noted organist and composer.

Workmen digging a trench in Stall Street in 1717 unearthed a bronze gilded head representing the Roman goddess Minerva. She was the goddess of wisdom and military success and the head is thought to have come from a statue in the Temple of Sulis Minerva, which once stood nearby. The head can be seen in the Roman Baths Museum.

During an archaeological survey in 2012 on the site of the new Gainsborough Hotel, a hoard of more than 17,500 Roman silver coins, some as old as 32 BC, was discovered. The coins were contained in eight leather bags and are believed to be the largest hoard from a Roman settlement ever found in Britain. They have been valued by the Treasury Valuations Committee at £120,000, and the Roman Baths Museum has raised £60,000 to be able to acquire and display them.

In the year 973 King Edgar was crowned in the then Bath Abbey, a forerunner of the present building. According to some definitions, he was the first King of all England. The form of service devised for that occasion is, essentially, the same as the one used for Coronation services today. A stained-glass window in the east end of the abbey commemorates this event.

John Wood the Elder’s Circus, begun in 1754, is the first example in the country of a street built in a circular form. The columns on the façades of the thirty-three houses show the three principal orders of Classical architecture: Doric (flat tops), Ionic (curly tops) and Corinthian (leafy tops).

Bath was the first city outside London to have an electricity company. The City of Bath Electric Light and Engineering Co. Ltd was formed in 1890 to supply ‘electric force’ and to maintain ‘appliances now known or to be invented’.

On 11 December 1799 William Smith, then living at No. 22 Great Pulteney Street, first dictated his list of the geological strata that lay beneath the English countryside – a breakthrough in the study of geology. In 1815 he produced ‘The Map That Changed the World’: the first geological map of Britain. He became known as ‘Strata’ Smith, and is regarded as the father of English geology.

The world’s first postage stamp (Rowland Hill’s famous ‘Penny Black’) was issued in Bath on 2 May 1840, four days before it was scheduled to be officially launched. This is believed to be due to an error on the part of a rather over-enthusiastic postmistress.

Plasticine was invented in Bath by art teacher William Harbutt in 1897. He needed a non-drying, clay-like modelling medium for use by his sculpture students. It became popular worldwide, and has been extensively used in the film animation industry. Plasticine continued to be manufactured in the Bathampton factory until 1983, when the factory closed and production was moved to Thailand. The brand has since passed through a succession of owners. Today it is produced by GP Flair PLC, a company based in Cheam, Surrey, which holds the rights to its manufacture.

In the summer of 1897 the 22-year-old Winston Churchill made his first political speech from the steps of Claverton Manor. It took place during a fete that had been arranged by the Bath Conservative Association.

In the 1590s Sir John Harington, a godson to Elizabeth I, invented the first example of a flushing toilet, which he installed in his manor at Kelston, near Bath. The term ‘john’, when used (particularly in the USA) to refer to a toilet, is sometimes regarded as a direct reference to its inventor.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

A number of products have been named after the city of Bath, usually because of their association with it. Here are some:

The Bath Bun (not to be confused with the Sally Lunn): This is a rich, round bun with a lump of sugar baked into its base, and sugar crystals and currants or caraway seeds sprinkled on the top. It probably originated in the eighteenth century and acquired the nickname of the ‘London’ Bath Bun when nearly a million of them were eaten there during the Great Exhibition of 1851.

The Bath Chap: This is the lower half of a pig’s cheek, salted or pickled in brine then smoked, boiled and finally coated in breadcrumbs. It is a local delicacy.

The Bath Chair: This was the successor to the sedan chair. It is a type of wheelchair with a folding hood, which can be pushed or pulled by an attendant or steered by the occupant.

Bath Blue: This is a classic blue-veined organic cheese made by the Bath Soft Cheese Company at Kelston, near Bath.

Bath Stone: Used almost exclusively in the building of the city, this is an oolitic limestone that was quarried or mined from the hills surrounding Bath. Today, the nearest working quarries are at Corsham, Wiltshire.

The Bath Oliver: This is a plain, hard biscuit invented in the eighteenth century by Dr William Oliver, physician at the Mineral Water Hospital. It was an early form of health food for his patients, although you can now buy them covered in rich, dark chocolate.

The Beauty of Bath: A small green apple flushed with red, this was introduced into the area in 1864. They are not often found in shops, as they must be eaten soon after picking or they will rot.

Bath Ales: This is an independent local brewery, established in 1995, which produces a range of craft beers and ciders. It is actually located in Warmley, a few miles north-west of Bath.

Bath Aqua Glass: This takes its name from the Roman name for the city, Aquae Sulis, and is made by adding copper oxide to the molten glass, giving it its distinctive aquamarine colour. It is handmade in the city.

Bath Asparagus: This is the common name for ornithogalum pyrenaicum, a plant whose flower shoots can be eaten as a vegetable. It takes its name from the fact that it was once found in abundance near the city. Among its other names are ‘spiked star of Bethlehem’ and ‘poor man’s asparagus’ from the fact that it once formed part of the diet of the poorer folk.

HMS Bath: A Newport-class destroyer built in the USA, this ship was transferred to the Royal Navy in 1940. She saw active service in the Second World War and was later transferred to the Royal Norwegian Navy. She was named for the town in New York State and for Bath, Somerset.

Bath Bricks: These were neither invented nor manufactured in the city. They were made from fine river clay, and produced by several companies in the Bridgwater area of Somerset. Bath Bricks were used for sharpening and, when powdered, for scouring – the forerunners of Vim and Ajax. They were patented in the 1820s, and given their name because their colour after firing resembles that of Bath stone.

ANAGRAMMATIC BATH

Rearranging the letters of the names of some locations in Bath can produce curious results. Here are a few examples:

and my own favourite:

2

PEOPLE

THEY CAME FROM BATH

Those who are native to, or live in, Bath are known as ‘Bathonians’. Here are a few well-known people who were actually born here:

Bill Bailey, actor and comedian

Mary Berry, cookery expert

Jennifer Biddall, actor (Hollyoaks)

Jeremy Guscott, Bath and England rugby union player

Barbara Leigh-Hunt, stage and TV actor

Jonathan Lynn, actor and writer (Yes, Minister)

Kris Marshall, actor (Death in Paradise)

Harry Patch, the ‘Last Fighting Tommy’

Arnold Ridley, playwright and actor (Dad’s Army)

John Arthur Roebuck Rudge, pioneer of cinematography

Ann Widdecombe, politician

Jacqueline Wilson, author

(Incidentally, ‘Bathonian’ is also a geological term given to a stage of the Middle Jurassic period – about 170 million years ago.)

THEY CAME TO BATH – BUT NEVER LEFT!

Some of the notable people who died in the city:

Revd George Austen (1731–1805): Father of the novelist Jane. He was rector of Steventon in Hampshire but after his retirement the family moved to Bath in 1801. He died in 1805 and is buried in the crypt of St Swithin’s, Walcot.

Senator William Bingham (1752–1804): Born in Pennsylvania, USA, he served on the US Senate from 1795 to 1801 and helped broker the Louisiana Purchase. He came to England after the death of his wife and died while on a visit to Bath. He is buried in the abbey where there is a monument to his memory.

Frances ‘Fanny’ Burney (1752–1840): Novelist, diarist and playwright. Her first novel, Evelina, was published in 1778. After her marriage (1793) she became Madame d’Arblay. She is buried in Walcot cemetery.

Sarah Fielding (1710–68): The sister of Henry Fielding, author of Tom Jones. Herself an author, she wrote The Adventures of David Simple and other works. She has a plaque in the abbey.

Admiral Sir William Hargood (1762–1839): A veteran of the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), where he commanded HMS Belleisle. He was knighted by George III in 1815 and lived in the Royal Crescent from 1834 until his death.

Richard ‘Beau’ Nash (1674–1761): Master of Ceremonies in Bath for more than fifty years. The arbiter of taste and elegance in the city, he drew up codes of dress and behaviour which were adopted throughout the country. Nicknamed ‘the King of Bath’, he controlled the social side of things and earned the respect of visitors from all levels of society. At his death he was honoured with a splendid civic funeral, and has a memorial tablet in Bath Abbey.

James Quin (1693–1766): A famous Georgian actor, celebrated for his portrayal of Shakespeare’s Falstaff. He is buried in Bath Abbey, where there is a plaque with an inscription written by his friend and fellow actor David Garrick.

Admiral Arthur Phillip (1738–1814): Commander of the First Fleet to Australia, he was the first Governor of New South Wales and founder of the settlement which became Sydney. He retired to Bath, where he died, and is reputedly buried in the churchyard of St Nicholas, Bathampton, although some doubt has now been cast over whether the body is actually there. However, the church does contain an Australia Chapel.

Sir Isaac Pitman (1813–97):