HISTORY
Overview
This page explores the city of Bath though time. It includes history starting from Saxon times up to the 1980s. The industrial revolution is of great significance to this area, including the use of the river Avon and the development of The Great Western Railway. The research unit specifically focused on the history of Weston Island and its immediate surroundings, including Twerton and Newbridge, two very different neighbourhoods shaped by the past. The history and influence of industry, transport, tourism and trade are themes that have informed the brief and been part of developing the masterplan.
Timeline:
Historical influences - Newbridge & Weston Island
There is some evidence of early Roman settlement along the Upper Bristol Road, with reports of Roman burials and stone coffins found in the area and within Locksbrook Cemetery. However, most of the evidence for settlement is concentrated further North, away from the flood plain (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 13). In general, the land around the Avon west of Bath has been largely in utilitarian and industrial uses, influenced by the River Avon and emphasised further by the presence of Twerton to the south (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p.9). A village of Saxon origin outside Bath, Twerton was a centre for milling and cloth working from mediaeval times. It had two mills on the Avon at Domesday. Bath Abbey owned a corn mill on the north side of the river. This may have been on the site of either the Weston Lower Mill or the Weston Upper Mill, the latter of which was a fulling mill by the late 15th century (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 9).
In the 16th to 18th centuries, the riverside meadows were developed for industrial purposes. From the 1720s the canal at Weston Island being essential for transporting raw materials and finished products (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 9). Weston Island The Avon Navigation Scheme also led to the construction in 1727 of the Weston Lock and the short canal through the curve north of the river, creating a small island in the River Avon (south of Osborne Road). The bypass canal was built to avoid the weirs of the Twerton and Weston mills. Weston Island was known in the 18th century as ‘Dutch Island’ after the Dutch immigrant brass-millers working at the brass mills there.
In 1728 a stone canal bridge was built, later called Dolphin Bridge, providing access to Dutch Island (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 9).
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Industrial Revolution
The first industrial site in the Locksbrook area was the British Gas Light and Coke Works of The Parish of Weston, established in 1819 (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 10). By the 1880s there was a small strip settlement on the Newbridge Road at Locksbrook and several industrial sites along the river, including woollen and carpet mills, cement works and lime kilns. The Locksbrook area was developed to accommodate workers in the many riverside industries. Larger middle-class housing was built around Newbridge Road c. 1880-
1914. The early 20th century saw additional industrial development, including the Bath Brewery and extensive residential growth in the area (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 10).
World War 2
During the Second World War the presence of industry, gas works, and railways lines attracted heavy bombing, mainly a single weekend of concentrated ‘Baedeker’ raids in April 1942. There has been significant continuity of industrial sites and most development since the 1950s has been the addition or transformation of industrial buildings (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 10). Post-industrial decline and the consequent closure of many industrial premises since the late 20th century (e.g. Bath Gas Works, 1971; Stothert & Pitt’s works,
closed 1989) has resulted in substantial areas close to the Avon being available for mixed use development (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 10).
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Cultural Influences
2.4.0-1 Buck, South East prospect of Bath, 1734 Cultural influences in the area are mainly concerned with industry, transport, and trade, with leisure and tourism making a minor impact from the late 20th century. All these derive ultimately from the presence of the River Avon (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 12).
Industry
There were corn mills on the River Avon at Lower Weston in Mediaeval times; they were converted to brass mills in the early 18th century,
resulting in the building of the Dolphin Inn and Dolphin Bridge at Weston Island. In the early 19th century, the first Bath gas works opened at Locksbrook, and gas production and storage continued there until the late 20th century. Stothert & Pitt’s iron and engineering concern altered the landscape south of the river and vacated the Western Riverside site in the 1980s. In the 20th century, furniture producers such as Bath Cabinet Makers and Herman Miller built factories around Lower Weston and Locksbrook, and other light industrial concerns shaped the landscape with industrial estates in the area since the Second World War (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 12).
Transport and trade
The river itself has been utilised as a transport route since the earliest times. In the 1720s the Avon Navigation Scheme formed Weston Island with its short stretch of canal and locks to avoid the weirs that drove mills along the river there, making the Avon navigable from Bristol to Bath.
The arrival of the Great Western and Midland railway lines in the mid-19th century stimulated further industrial developments. The Weston Hotel (1890) on Newbridge Road was built close to Weston Railway Station to cater for commercial travellers and tradesmen. More recently the siting of the city bus depot at Weston Island emphasises the area’s transport links further (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development 2015, p. 12).
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Historical influences - Twerton
The name Twerton is thought to be derived from the Old English word Twiverton, meaning ‘two ford town’. Roman and Anglo-Saxon Twerton
Given the proximity to the hot springs, the Roman spa of Aquae Sulis and the Fosse Way (which ran through Oldfield Park to the east), settlement around Twerton probably consisted of scattered farmsteads.
In Saxon times there were two manors and, although unified as a single parish in Mediaeval times, evidence of two core areas of the village was apparent until recent times (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development, 2018, p.7)
Mediaeval and Early Modern Twerton
The Domesday survey records that in 1086 Twerton was owned by Geoffrey Bishop of Coutances. By the 16th century the two mediaeval corn mills were used for fulling cloth woven in Bath. The fulling mills are listed in Bath Abbey’s records from the thirteenth century Bath’s explosive growth in the 18th century influenced Twerton’s economy. The
Bath Turnpike Trust administered the main road (High Street) west to Bristol from 1707 and in 1727 the Avon Navigation Scheme enabled river traffic between Bath and Bristol (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development, 2018, p.7). Two mills north of the Avon opposite Twerton were converted to brass production. Associated with the mill was a rack close for tentering (stretching the cloth to dry after fulling). The Lower Mill produced leather and writing paper. Malthouses also
sprang up near the river (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development, 2018, p.7) By 1787, the upper mill was manufacturing serge with machinery including spinning jennies and a gig mill, an early use for southwest England (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development, 2018, p.7).
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The Great Western Railway (GWR) Company was created in 1835 to provide a double-track line from London to Bristol via Bath. Construction of the Bristol – Bath section took place in 1836-40. Land reserved for an unbuilt extension of the Kennet & Avon canal in 1809 was purchased by the GWR; Twerton viaduct follows its route (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development, 2018, p.8). The cultural and historical impact of the railway’s arrival in 1840 linked the village symbolically and physically with the centre of Bath, yet at the same time the viaduct cut Twerton off from the riverside and mills. Later the main Bath to Bristol Road (now the A4) was rerouted along the north side of the viaduct. The viaduct acts physically and psychologically as a wall, cutting off the old centre and protecting the village from the worst of today’s traffic depredation. This has contributed significantly to Twerton’s distinct sense of local identity. (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development, 2018, p.8)
Typically for any working-class and industrial community, Nonconformity was a major force in the early 19th century for Twerton.
East Twerton was developed on farmland from the mid 19th century and the parish was incorporated into the city in the bid 1800s. By the 1890s the open fields were covered by terraced housing, joining Twerton with the city. Twerton became part of the City of Bath in 1911. In 1932 Bath City football club played its first season at the Twerton Park ground, having purchased the land about three years earlier. (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development, 2018, p.9)
Twerton after 1940
Twerton suffered considerable damage in the ‘Baedeker’ bombing raids of April 25-26th 1942. The railway lines, gas works and riverside industries were bomb targets but many bombs fell wide. 26 people were killed at Roseberry Road and schools were destroyed. Major changes occurred c. 1950-80. The cloth trade had been in decline for decades and the mills finally closed in 1954. The Upper Mill buildings were demolished by 1970. The High Street was redeveloped extensively with concrete and reconstituted stone buildings of little merit. Large housing estates were built on sites west and south of Twerton, infilling formerly open agricultural land and changing the setting of its village character significantly (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development, 2018, p.9)
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Cultural Influences
Industrial and commercial concerns have shaped Twerton significantly over its history. Medieval corn mills were converted to woollen cloth production by the 16th century and continued into the 20th century. Road improvements in the 18th century and the building of the Great Western Railway (1840) shaped Twerton’s development physically and culturally. The association since the 1930s with Bath Football Club’s ground has been the major sporting association (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development, 2018, p.10).
Archaeology
The village of Twerton is mentioned in Domesday - a highly detailed survey and valuation of land holding and resources in late 11th century England by order of King William the Conqueror (The National Archives, n.d.) and incorporated into Bath. The mediaeval village which was situated on a gravel terrace was divided into Upper and Lower Twerton. Elsewhere there were largely water meadows belonging to Twerton Parish prior to the late 18th and early 19th centuries. These have been built over. The alluvium has been raised through dumping prior to redevelopment. There is therefore a high potential for prehistoric and possibly Roman archaeology (Bath and North East Somerset Council Development, 2018, p.11).
