Just a quick reminder that this week is Heritage Open Week and the Mayor’s Parlour at the Guildhall on Bath’s High Street is open to the public between 11am and 4pm.
Mayoral robes.
There’s no charge and a chance for the children to have some dressing up fun.
There are civic maces, mayoral robes, golden chains of office, royal charters, silverware and royal seals.
Civic maces in the Mayor’s Parlour.
It’s a treasure chest of local history and heritage with volunteers on hand to explain everything.
Good to know that work by Bath & North East Somerset Council on a new route to improve access from Bathampton and Batheaston to Bath city centre for walkers and people who ride bicycles has started.
The route also provides an alternative to the busy London Road for cyclists travelling to and from that direction.
The £910,000 investment in the new route will allow people to travel to and beyond the existing footpath which currently leads to the A46 to Grosvenor Bridge East, Bath.
The new path will be between the centre of Batheaston and the National Cycle Network 4 consisting of a bridge across the River Avon and a 3 metre wide path following the river across Council owned fields to link to Mill Lane, to Bathampton to join the NCN 4 on the Kennet and Avon canal towpath. Most of the work will be completed this year, with the remainder completed in early 2014.
The money for the project comes from a combination of Council funds and the Local Sustainable Transport Fund and Council that is being used locally to promote the use of key cycling and public transport routes, work with local businesses to develop travel plans to encourage sustainable staff travel, and a better network of cycle parking at businesses.
Such a shame the Council couldn’t find monies to join with the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust to improve the surface of the towpath from the George Inn at Bathampton and into town.
It is deeply rutted with lakes of water forming when it rains. There is no proper drainage and pedestrians – picking their way around puddles – are put at further risk from cyclists bearing down on them – some at great speed and many without bells.
There is room on much of the towpath to properly segregate bikes and people. I am a cyclist and find it frustrating that while people will spend a fortune on carbon framed bikes and full lycra gear with special cycling shoes and the latest camera-carrying helmet – they won’t spend a couple of pounds on a bell.
Maybe it is time to set speed limits and make it illegal not to have a bell! Maybe even a road tax for cyclists? Certainly everyone should be made to pass a road test.
Waiting for a number 7 bus – and counting the machine-gun repetitiveness of the number 18’s as they follow each other through town – l happened to hear the Abbey clock bell strike two at 3 o’clock!
Let me explain.
While the hands on the dial were at 3 the time being struck was 2pm. Does this mean only part of the mechanism – the only part of Bath Abbey – belonging directly to B&NES – has not been turned back an hour as British Summer Time comes to an end.
I have seen this clock playing up several times before and l have only lived here for a year and a half! Get a move on guys because Christmas is coming. Up and down the town centre the lights are going up!
Good to see we are saving a bit of money by making do with last year’s baubles. They did look very nice.
Bath’s very own Queen of the kitchen and co-starring judge – with Paul Hollywood – of BBC 2’s Great British Bake Off – Mary Berry will be doing the honours and pulling the switch on Tuesday, November 12th.
It’ll be set up at the city centre end of Milsom Street.
BBC Points West’s Imogen Sellers will compere an evening of entertainment starting at 5.30pm and all in support of the RUH Forever Friends Appeal. The event is organised by Bath Business Improvement District.
The Keynsham Millennium Mosaics have been relocated and renovated following an agreement between Bath & North East Somerset Council and Keynsham Town Council.
Plan of Keynsham Memorial Park.
The mosaics were created by a community group at the turn of the century to celebrate important milestones over the past 100 years of the town. They were previously displayed in the Town Centre prior to the regeneration project starting. The mosaics are now relocated around Keynsham Memorial Park.
A more recent mosaic from the mosaic trail in the Memorial Park.
The Town Council has now agreed to adopt the Mosaics. The Chairman of Bath & North East Somerset Council, Councillor Neil Butters, met with the Chairman of Keynsham Town Council, Councillor Gill Hellier to receive a peppercorn payment for the transfer of the Mosaics.
The mosaics have been cleaned and renovated by the original artist Roz Wates and moved by Willmott Dixon – the Council’s town centre regeneration contractors. They depict:
* Keynsham in Roman Times
* Legend of St Keyna
* The Hanging Tree
* Keynsham in Wartime 1939 – 1945
* The Great Storm of 1968
* Fry’s and Cadbury
* Millennium
* Freeman of the town (Marcus Trescothick)
Councillor Neil Butters, Chairman of Bath & North East Somerset Council, said, “We are very pleased to handover the mosaics to the Town Council which symbolise the new millennium. There are great changes taking place in Keynsham town centre and both councils will be really pleased to have found a place for these symbols of history.”
Councillor Gill Hellier, Chairman of Keynsham Town Council, said, “We are pleased that a number of the mosaics, which were created by the community for the Millennium, have been repaired and are on display in Keynsham Memorial park; these have been handed over to the Town Council for safe keeping. The Keynsham in Bloom committee will play an active role in maintaining them.
We hope that in future there may be opportunities to replace those that were permanently damaged.”
The 1908 Stothert and Pitt steam crane at Western Riverside
Down on what was the industrialised western bank of the River Avon – as it slipped out of Georgian Bath on its way to Bristol and the sea – the biggest residential redevelopment since the Woods – father and son – brought 18th century Palladian architecture into this spa city – is taking place.
Crest Nicholson are transforming a huge area that made up much of the city’s industrial past. In its centre the three towering circular tanks used to store the home-produced gas that lit the streets and warmed the houses of this expanding city.
The last gasometer – due to come down in 2014.
There was engineering with crane makers Stothert and Pitt, brick and furniture making, printing, textiles, and even chemical and car manufacturing.
All is gradually disappearing under contemporary blocks with clean lines and the attraction of contemporary living but the developers have been keen to carry some history and heritage into the future and often in the most subtle of ways.
The ‘regeneration’ of the riverside.
They have appointed artists with a brief to acknowledge the industrial history of the location and help give its transformation a sense of place for those who come to live on the banks of a newly acknowledged River Avon.
This landscaped area is also a flood plain for the River Avon!
Even flood control measures have been built into the landscape – helping to reconnect Bathonians with their central waterway which is increasingly being looked at for leisure and not just as a drainage system for flood waters.
Elements has been chosen as a theme for the incorporation of all types of art on the site and in lots of different ways. It is inspired by the old gas works which was one of the first in the world and one that generated a chemical industry from its waste products.
Contemporary living with an artistic twist.
Crest say the theme was inspired ‘ by the history of chemical production that arose on the western riverside site from the introduction of gas power to Bath, the sustainable concerns of Crest Nicholson for the environment and the combination of architectural, landscape and art components. Elements embraces the historical depth and the significance of the location.’
This is a big construction company making big impact on the landscape. Peter Dickinson who heads up the artistic input has lived in the city with his family for nearly 20 years. He says he is drawing on his experiences as an artist and family man for what is being planned on Western Riverside.
Bath gets taken to task for being ashamed of its industrial past in a letter from B&NES Heritage Champion Cllr Bryan Chalker published in today’s Bath Chronicle.
The Newark Works – former home of Stothert and Pitt
The Newark Works
Cllr Chalker says, while he is enthusiastic about proposals for the development of the South Quays area and its role in regenerating the River Avon, he remains concerned about the future of the Grade 11 listed Newark Works – Stothert and Pitt’s former flagship building and whether its importance as a ‘vital part’ of Bath’s industrial heritage is being considered.
He continued: ‘ To some the neglected factory/office complex is a mouldering Victorian eyesore but to others it merits sympathetic restoration and conversion into a Museum of Bath, with theatre, workshops, retail outlets and moorings for historic river craft.’
Cllr Chalker also thought it sad that there wasn’t a commemorative plaque on the Newark Works to mark its importance to Bath.
Cllr Bryan Chalker
‘People tend to forget that Stothert and Pitt produced its legendary cranes here, including the eight electric deck cargo cranes for the Titanic and others for the Lusitania, Mauritania and Olympic. It’s also likely that the world-famous Bath company also made boilers for the ill-fated RMS Titanic.’
A second plaque, he suggests, should go up at the new Southgate development to mark the birthplace of Edwina Celia Troutt who sailed on the Titanic and survived its sinking to live to be 100.
The 1908 steam crane at Western Riverside
‘Edwina was born in Bath on June 8th, 1884 and her address was given as Newark Street.’
A final reminder of the importance of the former works, says Cllr Chalker, is the 1908 rail-mounted steam crane now on permanent display at Western Riverside but built there four years before the Titanic was launched.
‘Why is Bath so ashamed of its industrial past,’ he asks.
Local communities were today invited to find out more about the local area with a new online service run by Bath & North East Somerset Council.
Entrance to The Guildhall
Thousands of stats are available at the click of a button to raise awareness and understanding on a wide range of issues. It is the single most comprehensive source of research, facts and figures about Bath and North East Somerset available.
* Residents of Bath and North East Somerset are some of the happiest in the country?
* 15% of residents rent their homes privately, 5% more than in 2001?
* Rates of teenage pregnancy are the lowest in the South West?
This new process is called Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and is a new requirement placed on Council’s by the government.
Councillor Simon Allen (Lib-Dem, Radstock), Cabinet Member for Wellbeing said, “Good evidence should be at the heart of our decision making and we want to share what we know about the local area. We hope it will be a useful resource for people applying for funding and trying to get things done in their local community.
“However, we don’t know everything and it is particularly important that the voluntary organisations and local community groups tell us what they know because they often have the best understanding of what their community needs.”
Dr Bruce Laurence, Director for Public Health, added, “This information is already being used by the Council, the local NHS and other agencies to understand local needs and design services that meet local challenges. By identifying priority groups or communities who are experiencing poor health and wellbeing we can design or re-design our services to reduce these inequalities.”
Just a quick reminder that this week is Heritage Open Week and the Mayor’s Parlour at the Guildhall on Bath’s High Street is open to the public between 11am and 4pm.
