41 Facts About Bath Somerset

Bath Somerset is in the valley of the River Avon, 97 miles west of London and 11 miles southeast of Bristol.

Bath Somerset Abbey was founded in the 7th century and became a religious centre; the building was rebuilt in the 12th and 16th centuries.

Georgian architecture, crafted from Bath Somerset stone, includes the Royal Crescent, Circus, Pump Room and Assembly Rooms where Beau Nash presided over the city's social life from 1705 until his death in 1761.

William Rufus granted the town, abbey and mint to a royal physician, John of Tours, who became Bishop of Wells and Abbot of Bath Somerset, following the sacking of the town during the Rebellion of 1088.

Bath Somerset was interested in the curative properties of the waters, and he wrote A discourse of Bathe, and the hot waters there.

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Bath Somerset had become perhaps the most fashionable of the rapidly developing British spa towns, attracting many notable visitors such as the wealthy London bookseller Andrew Millar and his wife, who both made long visits.

In 1965, town planner Colin Buchanan published Bath Somerset: A Planning and Transport Study, which to a large degree sought to better accommodate the motor car, including the idea of a traffic tunnel underneath the centre of Bath Somerset.

Bath Somerset is said to have a tights fetish, have a scar below his bottom lip and resides in the Bath area or knows it very well.

Bath Somerset has been linked to the unsolved murder of Melanie Hall, which occurred in the city in 1996.

In 2021, Bath Somerset become part of a second UNESCO World Heritage Site, a group of spa towns across Europe known as the "Great Spas of Europe".

Bath Somerset had long been an ancient borough, having that status since 878 when it became a royal borough of Alfred the Great, and was reformed into a municipal borough in 1835.

However, Bath was made a county borough in 1889, independent of the newly created administrative county and Somerset County Council.

Bath Somerset became part of Avon when the non-metropolitan county was created in 1974, resulting in its abolition as a county borough, and instead became a non-metropolitan district with borough status.

Bath Somerset is one of the oldest extant parliamentary constituencies in the United Kingdom, being in continuous existence since the Model Parliament of 1295.

The constituency since 2010 covers exactly the city of Bath Somerset, and is currently represented by Liberal Democrat Wera Hobhouse who beat Conservative Ben Howlett at the 2017 general election and retained her seat at the 2019 general election.

Bath Somerset is in the Avon Valley and is surrounded by limestone hills as it is near the southern edge of the Cotswolds, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and the limestone Mendip Hills rise around 7 miles south of the city.

Bath Somerset is fully enclosed by green belt as a part of a wider environmental and planning policy first designated in the late 1950s, and this extends into much of the surrounding district and beyond, helping to maintain local green space, prevent further urban sprawl and unplanned expansion towards Bristol and Bradford-on-Avon, as well as protecting smaller villages in between.

Bath Somerset once had an important manufacturing sector, particularly in crane manufacture, furniture manufacture, printing, brass foundries, quarries, dye works and Plasticine manufacture, as well as many mills.

Important economic sectors in Bath Somerset include education and health, retail, tourism and leisure and business and professional services .

Bath Somerset Abbey was a Norman church built on earlier foundations.

The dominant style of architecture in Central Bath Somerset is Georgian; this style evolved from the Palladian revival style that became popular in the early 18th century.

The original purpose of much of Bath Somerset's architecture is concealed by the honey-coloured classical facades; in an era before the advent of the luxury hotel, these apparently elegant residences were frequently purpose-built lodging houses, where visitors could hire a room, a floor, or an entire house for the duration of their visit, and be waited on by the house's communal servants.

The masons Reeves of Bath Somerset were prominent in the city from the 1770s to 1860s.

The "Queen Anne fronts and Mary-Anne backs" architecture occurs repeatedly in Bath Somerset and was designed to keep hired women at the back of the house.

The decision was made to let Bath Somerset keep its status, but UNESCO asked to be consulted on future phases of the Riverside development, saying that the density and volume of buildings in the second and third phases of the development need to be reconsidered.

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In 2021, Bath Somerset received its second UNESCO World Heritage inscription, becoming part of a group of 11 spa towns across seven countries that were listed by UNESCO as the "Great Spas of Europe".

Bath Somerset became the centre of fashionable life in England during the 18th century when its Old Orchard Street Theatre and architectural developments such as Lansdown Crescent, the Royal Crescent, The Circus, and Pulteney Bridge were built.

An annual Bard of Bath Somerset competition aims to find the best poet, singer or storyteller.

Bath Somerset is credited as being one of the inventors of cinematography.

Bath Somerset buns were originally topped with crushed comfits created by dipping caraway seeds repeatedly in boiling sugar; but today seeds are added to a 'London Bath Somerset Bun' .

Bath Somerset College offers further education, and Norland College provides education and training in childcare.

Bath Somerset Rugby is a rugby union team in the Premiership league.

Bath Somerset narrowly missed out on election to the Football League by a few votes in 1978 and again in 1985.

TeamBath Somerset is the umbrella name for all of the University of Bath Somerset sports teams, including the aforementioned football club.

Bath Somerset is home to a table tennis League, made up of 3 divisions and a number of clubs based in Bath Somerset and the surrounding area.

Bath Somerset is approximately 11 miles south-east of the larger city and port of Bristol, to which it is linked by the A4 road, which runs through Bath Somerset, and is a similar distance south of the M4 motorway at junction 18.

Bath Somerset has a network of bus routes run by First West of England, with services to surrounding towns and cities, such as Bristol, Corsham, Chippenham, Devizes, Salisbury, Frome and Wells.

Bath Somerset is on National Cycle Route 4, with one of Britain's first cycleways, the Bristol and Bath Somerset Railway Path, to the west, and an eastern route toward London on the canal towpath.

Bath Somerset is served by the Bath Somerset Spa railway station, which has regular connections to London Paddington, Bristol Temple Meads, Cardiff Central, Cheltenham, Exeter, Plymouth and Penzance, and Westbury, Warminster, Weymouth, Salisbury, Southampton, Portsmouth and Brighton .

In 2015 another group, Bath Somerset Trams building on the earlier tram group proposals has created interest in the idea of re-introducing trams with several public meetings and meetings with the council.

Television, Bath Somerset is served by the BBC West studios based in Bristol, and by ITV West Country, formerly HTV, from studios in Bristol.