At home with a hero

Richard Wyatt

He may have been a national celebrity, but when he wasn’t helping Britain rule the waves, Horatio Nelson spent a fair bit of time here in Bath.

Find out more about that and a range of other historical happenings in a new programme of special summer walks for 2026, which has just been published by the Mayor’s Guides.

These walks are in addition to their regular programme of city centre and Pulteney Estate tours.

Nine walks are being offered, each on a range of days and times throughout the summer. In total, there will be 58 additional walks with around 1000 places available.

Like all walks, these are completely free, but booking is essential, and the spaces will all fill up – often pretty quickly.

To give everyone the best chance of getting on a walk, the Mayor’s Guides are making the details available now, but the booking will not open until 29 April 2026.

Chair Duncan Barley noted:

“Everyone is welcome to the extra free walks. They are especially focused on those who live in and around Bath who may want to dig a little deeper into the history of our beautiful city and those who lived here.”

The subjects of this year’s walks are:

  • Regency Bath, 1793-1830
  • Road, River, Canal & Rail
  • Bath and the Great Explorers
  • The Bath Blitz
  • Nelson: Why did he live inland in Bath?
  • Aristocratic Women who came to Bath
  • Hot Water, Healing and Hospitals
  • Jane Austen’s footsteps
  • The Bath – Alkmaar Story
  • Look out for leaflets and posters.
  • More details can be found here: www.bathguides.org.uk/summer-special-walks-2026
  • The Mayor of Bath’s Honorary Guides has been offering free tours around Bath since 1934.
  • The guides are all unpaid volunteers, and there are over 100 fully trained members.
  • Last year, they led over 2,750 walks and showed over 42,000 people around Bath.

The average feedback score from our walks is 4.98/5.00.

Published by Richard Wyatt

Freelance Journalist, broadcaster, columnist and local historian. Director of Bath Newseum. Married and lives in Bath. Interested in local history, architecture and visual display in museums and urban spaces.

3 Comments

  1. Last weekend we were in the New Forest and visited Buckler’s Hard where Nelson’s Warships were built. If ever in Hampshire very much recommend a visit.

  2. ……….and your piece reminds me of Bath’s longstanding ‘backdrop’ to many movies. Worth taking in a viewing of “Bequest to the Nation” (available free on YouTube)…….somewhat dated but with Lansdown Crescent used as a setting in some scenes.

    Slightly ‘over the top’ acting from Peter Finch as Nelson and Glenda Jackson as Lady Hamilton, but at least some of us earned a crust and ‘contributed’ what would now probably be regarded as quite inexcusable behaviour as students in the times when the hiring of film extras from the local community was quite normal (whatever happened to that idea?).

    Or have I just answered my own question!

    Malcolm.

  3. Locals are still sometimes used as extras. Members of Bath Abbey Chamber Choir, Bath Abbey Choir and other local singers were used as a choir in the Abbey in an episode of Macdonald and Dodds, and some of them also appeared as extras in a scene that didn’t require them to sing, filmed the same day.

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