BATH

Follow in the footsteps of the Romans, novelist Jane Austen and Queen Victoria and take a trip with me to the World Heritage Site of the City of Bath. On the way, I’ll set out the history of Bath, from its origins as an Ancient Briton and then Roman shrine to the goddess of the mineral –water wells, through its development as a Roman town and major thermal springs complex to its heyday as a playground for fashionable Georgian society. On arrival, we’ll visit the fascinating and well-preserved Roman Baths, where I’ll explain the elaborate Roman bathing procedures as we tour the baths and rooms of the complex and where we can also drink the waters as the Georgians would have done in the stylish Georgian Pump Room. From there we’ll visit Bath Abbey, once a monastery and a beautiful example of Gothic Architecture and see Robert Adam’s Pulteney Bridge, a rare example of a bridge with shops built on it From there, we’ll walk up the classic Georgian streets to see the crowning glories of Bath’s architecture: the Circus and the Royal Crescent. I’ll explain how and why Bath developed as a place of fashionable recreation for the Georgians, why the buildings look the way they do and talk you through a typical day of a Georgian person of fashion. According to your preference, we can then either visit a typical Georgian townhouse museum, view the fashions of that and other ages at the Fashion Museum or, for devotees of Jane Austen’s work, visit the museum devoted to her life and work.  And no visit to Bath is complete without taking tea and a Sally Lunn teacake bun, made in the town since 1772. Come back in time with me to a more graceful era on a tour of this most stylish of cities