Aqua Sulis and Cheese

[strigils]

So all this talk about cheese made me decide to make a pilgrimage to Bath. I have lived in Bath in the past and now i live not too far away.

For those unfamiliar its a city founded in Roman times on an extinct volcano, they chose the site as it has a river and also hot springs from said defunct volcano. In more recent times the Georgians rediscovered the place and it became popular for its "Taking of the waters". Many famous people lived there, too many to mention so if you are interested the link below gives more detail as well as a whole host of other information on the city.

https://www.cotswolds.info/places/bath/index.shtml

Its also famous for its Georgian architecture using the characteristic mellow cream coloured Bath stone which is quarried in the hills that surround Bath. As a lad i worked in one of the quarries one summer, as an adult i revisited some of the quarry tunnels as they used to hold parties/raves in them.

Its a popular tourist destination and this time it was weird walking around with barely anyone there, normally its got troupes of school kids and tours from all over the world walking its streets.

As youngster it was a popular night out, lots of clubs, pubs and live music venues and a very good selection of hotties. In the past i've seen the stranglers jamming in Walcott Village hall and got invited back to Peter Gabriel's place in Box for a party at his studios. It was quite bohemian in the 70's and 80's and got cleaned up through the 90's as property prices pushed out squatters and cheaper rentals. It still has an eclectic mix of hiso, artists and dossers and despite the gentrification is a fun night out.

Anyway the following is not a whole thread on Bath but some snaps we took during my Cheese hunt.


took this waiting at the lights at the 5 ways cross roads

The turn off to a place we stopped off at on the way back, used to love picnics there " Chalfield Manor", piccie later



dropping down the hill into Bath, essentially Bath is in the hollow of the old Volcano and built up its sides. The picture below is of Solsbury Hill, its the flat top hill Peter Gabriel wrote a song about.

Ccccchhhhhrist its taking an age to load these. This could take some time

It was a weird trip, in the 40 + years i've been living near the place i can honestly say this is the first time i've taken pictures, i felt like a tourist. Even had locals smiling wearily at me as the ducked under my shots.

So at last, ground zero. The place on the left is the first Waitrose opened in 1765 with the underground car park opened 5 years later. The shot looks down toward the Abbey. You can't drive through the centre of Bath nowadays and soon they are introducing zero emissions zones to add to the misery

The Abbey (pics later) and many other buildings had scaffolding, presumably taking advantage of the quiet times of late. The shot below looking back up Saracen Road, with one of many churches Bath has and past the Taxi is Cheese heaven - The Fine Cheese Co of Bath and Belgravia...only one customer permitted, scan your QR code and wait patiently, catchy name.

More to follow...

[helge]

Nice
Had to read up on this annoying little place in school. It was a time when Wembley had more of a ring to it

Would like to have a look now though

Love the Womans

Decent pubs ?

[strigils]

Decent pubs ?

Used to be 1 or 2 on most streets, some pics coming up of some of my old haunts; could have taken more but i was keen to get to the Heaven for opening time.

[strigils]

Onwards.

The building on the left is the Guild Hall and at its back is the covered market (left by yellow van), more later. Turn left to Pultney Bridge and onwards to Bath Rugby ground.

Turn right and there is the Corridor, a covered street which has some great shops and gets packed when it pours down

Looking back the way we've come, eerily quiet

The Empire Hotel built c1900, in my heyday it was inhabited by the Ministry Of Defence and converted back to a hotel in the 90's i think, its looking empty, perhaps victim to COVID. The Hotel has views over Pulteney, Parade Gardens and the Abbey, some nice vistas

The Abbey, been an Abbey site since c7th, rebuilt a few times the current once being a mix of c12th and c16th. Currently undergoing restoration judging by all the containers spoiling the view.

can't spin it and the rate this is going i'll expire before i can get it the right way up

180 degrees from the Abbey is the River Avon with Parade Gardens along its bank. Bath has some stunning public gardens, some free some not but in summer you are always guaranteed to see the local flowers at their best or least covered.

Odd name Parade Garden but you have to remember in Georgian polite society, that is exactly what you did, you paraded with your ladies, or if you were a Dandy you paraded with yourself - i think we know which TD poster is candidate for that Parade Gardens is Grade II listed.

another with some of Snubs council housing in the background. I used to know a bloke who inherited two of those town houses, some great parties.


Flag at half mast for Prince Phillip - RIP

Now when I were a lad, these were underground public toilets, the ladies nearest. Its essentially a traffic island or was when there was traffic and so used to be known as Bog Island. From the late 90's on i think, the toilets got closed and it was sold off and has been a music/club venue since.

Right, i'm uploaded out, this is worse than i remember it. More to follow.

[helge]

England has a lot of beauty to offer.

Architects had some budgets then. Think of the scandalous concrete-glas boxes they pollute our cities with these days

Would like to have a look now though

Most have cost a lot of builders lifes to create that.

Reckon a boycott is in order

[strigils]

I owned a flat on The Paragon which i have always regretted selling, bought for £105K the same are going for quite a lot more these days but what i miss most is the convenience of going out on the town and just walking home. the disadvantage was that every fuker wanted to come back and carry on the party, Mmm so perhaps is was wise to let it go.

Bath has always had good eateries and from my flat it was a short walk to George Perry-smith's place The Hole In the Wall, a famous chef who learnt his trade in France and was before his time. It changed hands a few times but it was consistently good.

[hallelujah]

Lovely pics, Nammers. Gawd I miss Britain at times.

[strigils]

More to come Hal but this uploading malarkey is taking an age, its enough to drive you to drink

[helge]

Lovely pics,

its enough to drive you to drink

A win-win

[strigils]

^ On it caller, hold the line for an update

[MarilynMonroe]

Nice pics, so lovely. I love the Georgian architecture ... thanks for sharing.
When I lived in England, I missed seeing Bath and a host of other places I would have liked to have visited.
I made it to London, Cambridge, Derby, Luton, Bedford, etc.. and took the train through many places going up to Scotland.
Also took a trip to Liverpool to see the Beatles hometown (the cave, Beatles museum, etc)

[strigils]

MM, there's a lot of ordinary places in the UK with ugly architecture, Bath is lucky as it was developed as a Georgian City and from thence on strict planning has ensured all developments must be sympathetic. That said I suppose the UK is no different to many other places where once small towns etc which were close knit communities have been overtaken by population growth and ugly developments.

Have to say you picked a couple of beauts there in Luton and Bradford. Joking aside, in the UK you can always get into the countryside fairly easily and when the weather is nice that countryside can be lovely.

I have lived in Somerset or Wiltshire for more that 40 years and both counties have large tracts of beautiful countryside but even so many towns have more than doubled in size in that time.

[MarilynMonroe]

^Hah! Well I lived and taught in Bedford, so I was near Luton and when my mom came to visit we went to Cambridge. My relatives live in Derby so we visited them. I did the Liverpool trip on my own and train up to Edinburgh...but I love the European architecture no matter, just the old buildings and such..but yes, some cities are more charming than others no doubt.

[strigils]

^ I will reveal a pub older than America tomorrow

[helge]

I will reveal a a pub older than America tomorrow

My house is a newer build in our street

1861

US civil war and Lincoln.

It'll outlast me and my kids too

No concrete used here

[strigils]

There are pluses and minuses to old houses, i've had a few over the years. They have character but some are an utter nightmare to maintain and heat and are difficult to modernise in terms of making them eco friendly heating wise. I owned a place which had near 3 foot thick walls and it was lovely and cool summertime a nightmare in the winter. It had what we call lining paper on the walls and you realised why when it peeled off, the whole wall was just cobbles and lime mortar, peeled off a strip and eight inches of wall came away how i laughed.

[helge]

I isolated mine on all exteriour walls and roof.

If not.........ouch

Nah, it's the garden and surroundings that attracts.

You know they build villas on plots the size of stamps, no hedges, looks like a prairie and it takes 15 years before you can take a piss in your garden.

Not for me and it would only be to get away from the Herons if I did move

[strigils]

it takes 15 years before you can take a piss in your garden.

That's what the neighbours letterbox is for surely.

[Neverna]

I have lived in Somerset or Wiltshire for more that 40 years

That's a long time. I thought you were a London lad, Toots. Deported from there early, by the looks of it.

[strigils]

Deported from there early, by the looks of it.

Indeed Nev we left freely of my parents will, been a moonraker for many a year

[helge]

been a moonraker for many a year

Had to look that one up

People from Wiltshire

[strigils]

^ he will now but actually i was referring to Wiltshire Moonrakers, update please Helge

[strigils]

^^ should have left that.

The point is

This name refers to a folk story set in the time when smuggling was a significant industry in rural England, with Wiltshire lying on the smugglers' secret routes between the south coast and customers in the centre of the country.[2] The story goes that some local people had hidden contraband barrels of French brandy from customs officers in a village pond. While trying to retrieve it at night, they were caught by the revenue men, but explained themselves by pointing to the moon's reflection and saying they were trying to rake in a round cheese. The revenue men, thinking they were simple yokels, laughed at them and went on their way. But, as the story goes, it was the moonrakers who had the last laugh. In the words of Wiltshire shepherd William Little who recounted the story to writer John Yonge Akerman: "Zo the excizeman ’as ax’d ’n the question ’ad his grin at ’n,…but they’d a good laugh at ’ee when ’em got whoame the stuff.”[note 1][3]

[strigils]

Well after this mornings delve into the sordid world of the creepy kraut stalker its time for a Bath.

[strigils]

Right where were we, oh yes Parade Gardens.

A 180 back from the Abbey and a 90 left from the gardens and you are looking back up the River Avon toward Pulteney weir and bridge. As a nipper we used to swim in and dive off it summer time, assuming we were impressing the girls with our splashing and weedy frames, all the while presumably ingesting plenty of DDT and paraquat run off back in those unregulated times.