{"id":182274,"date":"2021-06-10T18:04:48","date_gmt":"2021-06-10T17:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/travel\/?p=182274"},"modified":"2021-06-17T11:23:32","modified_gmt":"2021-06-17T10:23:32","slug":"bath-the-five-minutes-spare-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiveminutesspare.com\/travel\/bath-the-five-minutes-spare-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"Bath The Five Minutes Spare Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everything you ever wanted to know about Bath, in under 5 minutes!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bath has always been known as a Roman town, but its history goes beyond that. Furthermore, it is a lovely part of the countryside that is ripe for visiting. If you are trying to choose somewhere for your 2021 holiday, we couldn\u2019t recommend anywhere better.<\/p>\n

\"Pulteney

Image:travellight\/Shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s take the Five Minutes Spare tour of Bath and see where we come out. We are excited to review this ancient town. The Romans were bloodthirsty conquerors \u2013 but they sure knew how to build.<\/p>\n

Bath in the Early Days<\/h2>\n

Bath is the ultimate bath town, even named for its purpose back in Roman times. The beneficial properties of the hot mud and springs here were known as long ago as 860 BC when legend has it that King Lear\u2019s father bathed in mud when he saw it cured pigs of a skin disease in the town. He went on to become king and when he did, he found Bath.<\/p>\n

Before this, the area surrounding Bath had seen use since the Mesolithic period. Archaeologists believe that the area the Romans used as a bath was actually a shrine of the Britons before that.<\/p>\n

We can be certain of the Romans loving the town. They arrived in 1 AD and built a temple dedicated to the Goddess of Healing, Minerva. They also dedicated it to a Celtic God named Sul. Later, a bath would grow around the temple, with stables and inns needed to accommodate said baths. Some sources have their arrival as 50 AD, but whenever they came, they left a town in their wake. The town is now a UNESCO world heritage site<\/a> due to the Roman remains and Georgian architecture which came much later.<\/p>\n

The baths and temple have seen rich archaeological findings in recent years. Curse tablets are some of the most interesting finds. They were grievances written on tablets and left for the goddess. The building of the baths took about 300 years to complete. The town was given walls in the 3rd<\/sup> century, but it was all left behind when they retreated back to Rome. A 2012 dig saw a Roman hoard of 30,000 coins uncovered.<\/p>\n

After the Romans left\u2026<\/h2>\n

The Romans were gone by 407 AD, leaving the town to grow in Saxon hands. It is believed this area may have been the sight of the Battle of Bodun, in which King Arthur saw off the Anglo-Saxons. In the 9th<\/sup> century, Alfred the Great made Bath one of his fortified towns from whence he could rule all England, then in 973, Edgar was crowned the first king of England, not in London: but in Bath.<\/p>\n

In the 9th<\/sup> century, Bath had its own abbey which was built in 781 and was dedicated to St Peter. When Alfred the Great re-designed the town in the 900s, he gave the whole of the southeast to the abbey. He turned it into a burh with a wall over a thousand yards in length. It was defensible by 1000 men. Edward the Elder had coins minted here, so there must also have been smelters and a mint.<\/p>\n

The name \u2018Bath\u2019 came from the Anglo-Saxon name of Badum. It is mentioned in the Domesday Survey<\/a> as being the ruling town of its hundred, with 154 burgesses that earned a whopping 66 pounds, 1 shilling and 12 pence. The land was owned by the King, proving that it hadn\u2019t changed hands from royalty yet, even if it had passed between invaders.<\/p>\n

By the 12th<\/sup> century, the abbey just about dominated the whole town. The building that stands now dates from the tail end of this period. In 1499 the Bishop of Bath had a dream of angels ascending to heaven on ladders and took it as a sign to rebuild the fragile abbey. The church ran two alms-houses to help the poor, but the rest of the town still made its money out of the baths.<\/p>\n

Bath Receives A Charter<\/h3>\n

The town received its first official charter in 1189, which would have let them hold a market. Wool cloth was fulled and dyed here in medieval times and the baths would have brought trade, too. Henry VIII closed all the abbeys in his time in 1539, leaving the town suddenly bereft of half of its people. By the 17th<\/sup> century, it was almost wholly dependant on sick people coming to seek the cure of the baths and the mud.<\/p>\n

Bath got a second charter in 1590 by Queen Elizabeth which made it into an official city. In 1633 they banned thatching because of the fire hazard, and as of 1615 the streets were routinely cleaned. Bath suffered from the plague back in the 1300s, but then again throughout the 17th<\/sup> century. They were struck in 1604, 1625, 1636 and again in \u201943. 1642 saw the English Civil War and Bath was occupied by the Parliamentarians, which resulted in a battle in which the Royalists won. However, by 1645 the king had lost and the Royalist commander in Bath surrendered the town. By the end of the century, all was quiet again. Someone had the ingenious idea to bottle and sell Bath water, and a trade arose there.<\/p>\n

Much of Bath was then rebuilt in Georgian times and the Tudor period, which makes it cherished nowadays by UNESCO. A quarry nearby sported a creamy coloured stone which made most of the buildings and new streets. The Prior Park Estate was built out of this stone in the same period.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a break from the history for a moment and look at some fun trivia out of Bath. It\u2019s been a daunting few hundred years and we need a break.<\/p>\n

Fun Trivia About Bath<\/h2>\n

The town of Bath is old enough and pretty enough to have had thousands of little fun things happen in its streets. Here are some of the Five Minutes Spare<\/a> favourites for you to share with your friends:<\/p>\n