There’s no shortage of guides who’ll give you the lowdown on Bath and its history. There’s plenty of it!
But – as the blurb extolling the virtues of a different kind of walking tour puts it – ‘here’s an invitation for locals and visitors alike ‘to explore the hidden – and sometimes unsettling -stories behind Bath’s elegant facades.’
The University of Bath’s Centre for Death and Society has launched a unique new walking tour that ‘offers a darker perspective on the historic city of Bath which shifts focus from Romans and Georgians to tales of illness, death and crime and the dark underbelly of the city to whet your appetite for the macabre.’
The Bath Death Walk – a 90-minute city centre tour – has been developed as a free, self-guided experience via a dedicated podcast and mobile app.
It’s been created by Dr Molly Conisbee, who will also shortly be giving a talk at Toppings in Bath on her new book on the social history of dying and death – ‘No Ordinary Deaths: A People’s History of Mortality’.
I met her in Bath this morning – braving the chilly wind – to tell me more. And what a knowledgeable and entertaining person she is, too.
NB. The walk podcast is available at https://cdaswalk.org
Find out more about the Centre for Death and Society via www.bath.ac.uk/research-centres/centre-for-death-society/
My great great great Grandfather died in 1850 as one of nine victims who were casualties in Bath’s Typhoid outbreak.