Time to explore… Bath, UK. A brief history

Restrictions on overseas travel due to the pandemic gave us an opportunity to focus on our wonderful, picturesque, interesting and historic sites of the UK. In 2021, this included a few days away in Bath.

Bath, in the county of Somerset, south-west England, is well known for its Roman spas and Georgian architecture, but there are many other aspects worthy of note.

Its land structure has its roots in the ice ages, most notably 450,000 years and 20,000 years ago. Climate change (fluctuating between ice and warmer periods) even then affected the landscapes. Of significance was the resulting formation of the river system within the Avon Valley – the River Avon and its tributaries. A combination of water supply and light limestone soils was ideal for supporting human habitation. 

Flint artefacts dating back 10,000 years provide evidence of human life in the area, while land clearance for food crops is considered to have been in existence 6,000 years ago. Examples of round barrows and farmsteads dating to the Bronze Age (3,000 years ago) can also be found around Bath.

There are two other aspects of note. Due to its fortuitous narrow River Avon crossing point, trade and travel routes developed. The Fosse Way, a Roman road which followed pre-historic routes, crossed the river at Bath.

Additionally, various hot springs were to prove a godsend to the Romans who created a spa and religious centre that they named Aquae Sulis, drawing people from across the Roman Empire.

In relatively more recent times, it was around Bath that the importance of strata identification was recognised. One William Smith, a surveyor and geologist (1769-1839), was commissioned in his late 20s to survey routes for a proposed Somerset coal canal, intended to take coal via other canals to London. His work led him to examine and identify differences in land strata and the fossils contained therein, later referred to as stratigraphy, but not by Smith at the time. Canal digging provided the opportunity to examine depths of the landscape in this way, which was considerably earlier than railway excavation.

Smith went on to create a map of geological cross-sections throughout England and Wales, dated 1815. This had significant benefits for coal exploration at a time when prospecting was a hit-and-miss affair, and would have help fuel (pun intended) the Industrial Revolution.

He was not alone in his discoveries, but in addition to mapping and written works he produced a ‘Geological table of British organized fossils’, which is still referred to today. He presented some of his works to the Geological Society. Unfortunately, his achievements did not bring him wealth. Instead his debts landed him in prison for a short time. It was only in later years that the significance of his works was recognised.

An interesting link is that at one stage he entered into business in Bath with a Jeremiah Cruse, perhaps an ancestor of our very own John Cruse.

Today Bath is of such significance it has UNESCO accreditation. 

Copyright: Words and photos, Sue Barnard 2022