It is difficult to know what to say about my visit to the Roman Baths, as they are so iconic and much represented in websites all over the internet. I spent almost two hours there. The free audio tour was really well done and provided a lot of interesting information. I found the dark lighting quite frustrating, it is almost as if they want to discourage people taking photographs, but I did manage quite a lot. Not all worked well, though.
Even with the audio tour descriptions, I found it very difficult to imagine what the baths looked like in Roman times, as much of the structures that remain date from much later, during the Georgian spa town era.
Pulteney Bridge
Bath is situated on the River Avon and across that river runs Pulteney Bridge. Some might wax lyrical about the architecture, but as a genealogist my first thought was, who was it named after?
The bridge was constructed in 1774 to connect the city with the land owned by the Pulteney family, where they created a town called Bathwick. Unusual perhaps, is that the key players were women. The bridge is named for Frances Pulteney (1725-1782) because she inherited the estates of her first cousin once removed, the Earl of Bath. Her husband, William Johnstone, took her surname! Her daughter, Henrietta Laura Pulteney (1766-1808), is also memorialised in street names.
Okay, the architecture is great too. It is a rare example of a bridge with shops along it. So, of course, I had to stop for lunch at one of the cafes. The buildings are very narrow!
Sources
- Anon, ‘Pulteney Bridge‘, Wikipedia. Annoyingly, Frances does not have a Wikipedia entry, though her father does, as he was an MP. Her Wikitree entry was also particularly sparse, but I have rectified that somewhat.
rustenivy 