Roman Bath

From AD 43 the Romans began the development of Bath. The city was located on one of the principal highways of the Romans, the Fosse Way, which stretched all the way from Exeter to the Humber in Yorkshire. The Romans cultivated the city into a place of recreation, rather than a garrison. They built around the hot springs a complex series of baths. They were used for bathing and restorative purposes. Constructed beside the baths was a temple to Minerva. This area became the heart of Aquae Sulis.

Bath in the Middle Ages

Bath flourished on the strength of its wool industry during the medieval times. The three baths (Kings Bath, Cross Bath and Hot Bath) went on to drawn in visitors. These were oftne the sick and the poor who arrived hoping for a cure.

17^th century Bath

In 1668, Samuel Pepys, the diarist who famously wrote of The Great Fire of London, criticised the baths, saying “it cannot be clean to go so many bodies together in the same water”. During this period, Bath’s population was beneath 1200 and there were only about 150 houses.

18^th and 19^th centuries Bath

Bath became a cultural city during the 18^th and 19^th centuries, drawing in such well-known people as writers Jane Austen, later Charles Dickens, poets William Wordsworth and Walter Savage Landor and actors David Garrick and Sarah Siddons.