News and Press Releases

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News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.32 Drop-in & see our collections & site of Bath’s Cold War HQ
Our “Drop-In Day” on Monday 10th September offers you the chance to see our new archive store in the converted “bunker” beneath the Guildhall. What was once the 1960s Control Centre for the city in the event of nuclear attack has now been adapted to store our unique collections of archives and local studies books.
8 September 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.31 Guildhall weather station & free basement tours
This photo of a rooftop weather station from the early 1900s is a reminder that there are parts of Bath’s Guildhall which most people never see. Our free “History Beneath Your Feet” tours on Friday 8th September give you the opportunity to see below the Guildhall. The Guildhall basement is home to 800 years of historic documents and from Georgian kitchens to the site of a nuclear war control centre, our walls have a story to tell. Tours are at 10.30am and 11.30am. To book call 01225 477421.
1 September 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.30 Bathampton Village Show
This 19th century watercolour of Bathampton Church shows the tower covered in ivy and looking very different to its appearance today. If you are interested in village history and the changes which have taken place over the years then come and ask an archivist. Bath archivists will be on hand to answer questions on how to research your village or family history at their stand in the Village Hall at the Bathampton Village Show on 9th September. There will also be a small exhibition and historic maps to view as well as children’s activities.
17 August 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.29 Free Family History Fair
A Bath photographer captured this family wedding around 1910, with a wonderful array of hats on display. Sadly no names are recorded to tell us who the young couple are. If you are interested in finding out more about your ancestors then come and ask an archivist. The Bath archivist and other experts will be ready to answer your questions at the Bristol and Avon Family History Society Fair on Saturday 9 September at the BAWA Club, 589 Southmead Road, Filton, BS34 7RG.
17 August 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.28 Wellow in 1902
Wellow Horticultural Society held its first Flower Show in 1956 and is still going strong with its 61st Show this year at the Playing Fields on Saturday 2nd September. If you are interested in finding out more about Wellow village history, you can ask an archivist at our stand at this year’s Flower Show. You will also be able to see a small exhibition and historic maps from our collections, including this detailed 1902 map.
17 August 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.27 Pioneering Preservation
This week marks the 70th anniversary of the establishment of listed building status, which protects sites and structures of historic importance. In Bath over 6000 buildings are listed on account of their architectural significance so that their appearance can be enjoyed by Bath residents and many thousands of visitors from across the world. In Bath, city planners anticipated the need for protection of our Georgian architecture even before the national legislation of 1947. A private Act of Parliament passed in 1925 allowed the council to establish an Advisory Committee which examined proposed elevations for alterations and new buildings in the city. The committee included an architect and a surveyor, and if they considered that proposals “would seriously disfigure the city” permission would be refused. This pioneering 'Bath Clause', was regarded as a model of good practice, and was later adopted in the private acts of other cities and towns, including Bristol.
11 August 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.26 Bath Chandeliers in the White House?
Whilst the US President is currently on holiday, the West Wing of the White House in Washington is undergoing refurbishment and re-decoration. During a previous refurbishment in 1950, White House staff asked Bath Corporation to sell them the chandeliers from our world-famous Assembly Rooms - the chandeliers had been removed from the Assembly Rooms prior to World War II, which is why they survived the Bath Blitz. Had the local authority and the Room’s owners, the National Trust, not refused to sell, then a little bit of Bath could have ended up in the White House today.
10 August 2017
News
Celebrating 50 yrs in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.25 Celebrating LGBT History: cross-dressing in the 1700s
In this year when we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, which partially decriminalised homosexuality, we can look back at evidence of LGBT issues in our archive collections. A very rare statement of cross-dressing is contained in the Chew Magna parish register, where in April 1770 we find the burial of James Millard, “who [for] many years wore womens cloath[es].” It is unusual for church registers to contain any personal details beyond the basic requirements but the vicar in Chew Magna recorded for posterity this and other insights into life and death in his community.
4 August 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.24 Here be Dragons
This heraldic red dragon decorates the only Tudor illuminated manuscript in our collections, the 1590 charter of Queen Elizabeth I to the citizens of Bath. We know that charters were purchased, not given, and the city must have paid dearly for such elaborate decoration, which includes flowers, a harp, a portcullis, a fleur-de-lys, and a golden lion. The 1590 charter was important to the inhabitants and governing Council of Bath, setting out in precise terms the powers of the Council, its area of responsibility, including ownership of the hot springs. You can see more dragons at the Victoria Art Gallery’s 2017 summer exhibition: https://www.victoriagal.org.uk/events/here-be-dragons
21 July 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.23 Jane Austen lived here
On 5th May 1801 Jane Austen wrote: "We looked at two houses in Green Park Buildings, one of which pleased me very well." But it wasn't until 1804 that Jane and her family made the decision to live at No. 27 Green Park after three years spent in Sydney Place. Jane would have seen the newly-built Green Park houses with their pristine clean stonework and not soot-encrusted as this photograph of 1982 shows. Today we can enjoy the beauty of the stonework as Jane did, thanks to stone-cleaning projects of recent years.
21 July 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.22 Carnival 1962 style
Italian Carnival was the theme of the Bath Festival in 1962. This picture from our Festival archive shows Festival guests in masked carnival costume. Guests included HRH Princess Margaret and the entertainment took place in Parade Gardens, where flaming torches illuminated gondolas on the River Avon. This year’s Bath Carnival takes place on Saturday 15th July.
14 July 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No. 21 American Museum Garden, Bath
This idyllic picture of summertime was painted in the gardens of the American Museum at Claverton Manor by local artist Malcolm Ashman. The image is from the archive of the Bath Society of Artists, whose 2017 Open Exhibition is currently being held at the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath, running until Saturday 15th July. The Society was established in 1904 and the archive dating back to its foundation was recently placed in the care of Bath Record Office.
12 July 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.20 Wedding cake by Fortt's
This advertisement from a Bath magazine of 1896 shows what must have been a proud achievement of the city’s professional catering staff, an elaborate multi-tiered wedding cake smothered in intricate sugar-paste flowers. It was ordered by the then M.P. for Bath Sir Robert Blaine on the occasion of his daughter’s marriage. For generations of Bathonians the name Fortt’s conjures up images of the high-class restaurant and catering company under this name in Milsom Street. For most of the 20th century, many local clubs and societies held their annual dinner at Fortt’s. Private parties including wedding receptions were a speciality of this firm’s outside catering service.
20 May 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.19 Royal Crescent – As It Is
It is 250 years this week since the foundation stone of the Royal Crescent was laid. The Crescent is recognised world-wide as an iconic image of Bath’s Georgian architecture, which attracts over 1 million visitors to the city every year. The natural honey-coloured stone is bathed in sunlight in this picture of the Royal Crescent taken from the 1986 Bath Official Guide Book. An official guidebook to Bath was published annually by Bath City Council’s Spa Committee for many years. The guide books promoted Bath as a tourist destination. A collection of over 40 of the guidebooks is held at Bath Record Office.
18 May 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.18 Royal Crescent – As It Was
It is 250 years this week since the foundation stone of the Royal Crescent was laid. The amphitheatre created by the Crescent has been the magnificent setting of many celebrations in Bath’s history. This photograph shows the city’s Peace Celebrations on 19th July 1919 after the end of World War I. The day’s programme of speeches and band-music followed a procession through the city streets of representatives of many local institutions and organisations. The large banners shown in this photogtraph belong to Friendly Societies and the tall flagpoles held flags of all Britain’s Allied countries.
18 May 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.17 Royal Crescent – As It Might Have Been
It is 250 years this week since the foundation stone of the Royal Crescent was laid. Today the Crescent looks immaculately preserved, showing no evidence that the centre houses were gutted by enemy bombing in April 1942. This image from the 1945 Plan for Bath shows the Royal Crescent converted into a Civic Centre. The authors of the draft Plan for Bath wrote that, “The proposal … would not only preserve one of the finest examples of Georgian Architecture in Europe, but completely restore the building and give it a new and dignified life.” They suggested it would, “create one of the finest Civic Centres in the world. It would be a bold scheme calling for wisdom and greater courage – a grand civic gesture of this age to those who follow.” Only a small number of the proposals in the report were accepted by the Council and this was not one of them.
18 May 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.16 Bath's Assembly Rooms 75 years ago
75 years ago, Bath’s Assembly Rooms were bombed during World War II. This photograph was found and chosen as object 16 by Emma, one of the Record Office’s volunteers. It shows the bomb damage caused to the building during the Bath Blitz of 25-26th April 1942. The Assembly Rooms were designed by John Wood the younger in 1769 for fashionable Georgian entertainments. The building has seen many changes since - in the 1920s it was used as a cinema. It was bought and restored by Ernest Cook in the 1930s. The restoration had only been completed for four years when the Assembly Rooms were bombed. The building remained a ruined shell until 1956, when with financial assistance from The War Damage Commission, reconstruction began. The work was completed in 1963.
17 May 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.15 Beating the Bathwick Bounds
Colin Johnston, Principal Archivist, has chosen this River Avon scene to celebrate Bath World Heritage Day, the Wonderful Waters of Bath, on Sunday 23rd April 2017, 11am-3pm, Parade Gardens, admission free. Bath Record Office will be there, with this picture one of many in our water-themed display. The impossibly crowded boat illustrates the regulations of 1832 for Beating the Bounds of Bathwick parish. Also known as a perambulation, the ceremony required local dignitaries and parish officers to process along the whole of the parish boundary even if, as in this case, it followed the centre of the river bed. Beating the bounds often took a whole day to complete, with frequent stops for refreshment, and at a similar event in Lyncombe and Widcombe parish in 1865 we have a report in our archive collections that “much sherry wine was drunk on the journey and everyone took more than was good for them.” The perambulation was revived in 2007 by the Widcombe Association Summer Festival after a lapse of 142 years. (Ref: 0951)
18 April 2017
News
Celebrating 50 yrs in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.14 Parade Gardens, site of World Heritage Day 2017
This famous view taken from North Parade Bridge shows Parade Gardens, location of this year’s World Heritage Day celebrations. Bath-based artist Samuel Poole created this and many other watercolour views of the city around 1905 to illustrate a tourist guide-book now in the archive at Bath Record Office. Come and meet the archivists and see our display in Parade Gardens on World Heritage Day, the Wonderful Waters of Bath, on 23rd April 2017, 11am-3pm, admission free. For more details and a full programme please see the Bath World Heritage Day webpage. (Ref: PP/40).
7 April 2017
News
Celebrating 50 yrs in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.13 Spring weather 250 years ago
A daily weather record meticulously kept in tiny writing by the Rector of Bath gives us an insight into the climate of this city over 250 years ago. The diary tells us on 30th March 1761: “The last Winter has been uncommonly mild beyond any Winter perhaps within the memory of any man living, the Spring likewise as far as it has advanced has been very kindly.” Yet extremes of weather were not unusual in those days. The entry of 2nd February 1757 states: “ a still sharper frost than yesterday, which froze the pots under the servants beds, and water in the kitchen.” Clearly the servants’ sleeping quarters were unheated! Extreme cold is again described on 17th December 1759: “The weather for this week past has been uncommonly severe occasioned by a strong sharp North East wind which has frozen the river so hard the people have walked over it in great numbers for three days past.” The weather diary was discovered among the 18th century papers of Bath’s Town Clerks. How it came to be there remains a mystery.
31 March 2017
News
Celebrating 50 yrs in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.12 Volunteers find loyal letter
Three of our volunteers have been working together to list all the signatures included in the Bath Loyal Association signature book and wanted to share this interesting letter which they found amongst its pages. It is from Jacob Bell, of Compton Dando, Somerset, dated 17th January 1793, who is so anxious to make clear his loyalty to his King that he has written a letter to be included in the book of signatures. This signature book was a petition of loyalty signed between 1792-93 at a time when there was a real fear that the French revolution would spread to England. (Please click or see below for more information and a bigger image.)
24 March 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.11 Danny Boy from Bath
The lyrics to one of the best known Irish songs, Danny Boy, were written in 1913 by a Bath resident, the lawyer Fred Weatherley. His words were composed to accompany a traditional Irish tune known as the Londonderry Air. Fred Weatherley is commemorated in Bath by a bronze plaque outside his home at 10 Edward Street in Bathwick. On moving into this house in 1919 he immediately commissioned a very distinctive Tudor-style bay window which still exists today, its quirkiness setting it apart from the neighbouring houses.
13 March 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.10 Bath's First Woman Councillor
The first female councillor to be elected to the previously all-male Bath City Council was Miss Helen Hope in 1909. She immediately became active on Council committees where she believed female influence and direction was needed: Education, Housing of the Working Classes, Libraries, Sanitary, Employment of Children Act, and Asylums. Outside her rôle on the City Council she founded and organized in 1912 a pioneering women’s centre named Citizen House in Bath for the education and welfare of females of all ages.
8 March 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.9 The greatest Welshman
David Lloyd George was described as “the greatest Welshman since the age of the Tudors” in an obituary of 1945 by Sir Winston Churchill. The Welsh politician visited Bath during his years as Prime Minister for the wedding in Bath Abbey of his son who was in a military convalescent home in Marlborough Buildings in 1917. Bath Council’s intention to honour Lloyd George with Freedom of the City was thwarted on three occasions and never took place. In November 1919 it was pressure of work which prevented the Prime Minister from fixing a date to receive the Freedom in Bath. A ceremony arranged in 1922 at the Theatre Royal was cancelled the day before due to illness. A later ceremony in 1926 also at the Theatre Royal was cancelled owing to the National Strike. The Freedom Scroll inscribed to David Lloyd George still remains in our archive collections unsigned and undated.
1 March 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @Bath Record Office. No.8 Love-letters from war-time Bath
In this week of St. Valentine's Day we have chosen love-letters of a war-time romance written by a World War II serviceman stationed in Bath in 1943. Bombadier Herby Couzens of Lincolnshire writes to his new bride and wife Elsie of daily events at his military base in Bath, and how much he misses her. Royal Artilleryman Couzens was part of a Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment brought to defend Bath after the devastating Blitz attacks of 1942.
15 February 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @Bath Record Office. No.7 World War I badge
Generations of servicemen have taken up handicraft to while away off-duty hours or during recovery from injury. This hand-embroidered badge of the Royal Fusiliers was a gift to VAD nurse Kathleen Ainsworth, who worked at the Bath War Hospital, Combe Park. A wonderful collection of her letters is held by Bath Record Office.
10 February 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No. 4. Step into the Past
Our archive collections contain many historic maps from the 17th to 20th centuries showing how the city has expanded to accommodate a growing population. This 1774 map of Bath is one of them.
13 January 2017
News
Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office. No. 3. Mary Berry is in our archive
A young Mary Berry is seen standing on the right in this picture taken in Bath’s Guildhall in 1953, when her parents were mayor and mayoress of the city.
13 January 2017

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News and Press Releases

News and Press Releases

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.32 Drop-in & see our collections & site of Bath’s Cold War HQ

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.31 Guildhall weather station & free basement tours

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.30 Bathampton Village Show

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.29 Free Family History Fair

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.28 Wellow in 1902

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.27 Pioneering Preservation

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.26 Bath Chandeliers in the White House?

Celebrating 50 yrs in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.25 Celebrating LGBT History: cross-dressing in the 1700s

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.24 Here be Dragons

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.23 Jane Austen lived here

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.22 Carnival 1962 style

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No. 21 American Museum Garden, Bath

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.20 Wedding cake by Fortt's

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.19 Royal Crescent – As It Is

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.18 Royal Crescent – As It Was

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.17 Royal Crescent – As It Might Have Been

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.16 Bath's Assembly Rooms 75 years ago

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ BathRecordOffice No.15 Beating the Bathwick Bounds

Celebrating 50 yrs in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.14 Parade Gardens, site of World Heritage Day 2017

Celebrating 50 yrs in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.13 Spring weather 250 years ago

Celebrating 50 yrs in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.12 Volunteers find loyal letter

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.11 Danny Boy from Bath

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.10 Bath's First Woman Councillor

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No.9 The greatest Welshman

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @Bath Record Office. No.8 Love-letters from war-time Bath

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @Bath Record Office. No.7 World War I badge

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office No. 4. Step into the Past

Celebrating 50 years in 50 objects @ Bath Record Office. No. 3. Mary Berry is in our archive