Everything about Bath And North East Somerset Ua totally explained
Bath and North East Somerset (commonly referred to as
BANES or
B&NES) is a
unitary authority that was created on
1 April 1996 following the abolition of the
County of Avon. It is part of the
Ceremonial county of
Somerset.
Bath and North East Somerset covers an area of, of which two thirds is
green belt. It stretches from the outskirts of
Bristol, south into the
Mendip Hills and east to the southern
Cotswold Hills and
Wiltshire border. The city of
Bath is the principal settlement in the district, but BANES also covers
Keynsham,
Midsomer Norton,
Radstock and the
Chew Valley.
The area has varied geography including river valleys and rolling hills. The history of human habitation is long but expanded massively during
Roman times, and played significant roles in the
Saxon era and
English civil war. Industry developed from a largely agricultural basis to include
coal mining with the coming of
canals and
railways. Bath developed as a spa resort in
Georgian times and remains a major cultural tourism centre having gained
World Heritage City status.
History
Although BANES was only created in 1996 the area it covers has been occupied for thousands of years. The age of the
henge monument at
Stanton Drew stone circles is unknown, but is believed to be from the
Neolithic period, as is the chambered
tomb known as
Stoney Littleton Long Barrow.
Solsbury Hill has an
Iron Age hill fort.
The archaeological evidence shows that the site of the
Roman Baths' main spring was treated as a shrine by the
Celts, and was dedicated to the goddess
Sulis, whom the
Romans identified with
Minerva; however, the name Sulis continued to be used after the Roman invasion, leading to Bath's
Roman name of
Aquae Sulis (literally, "the waters of Sulis").
Excavations carried out before the flooding of
Chew Valley Lake also uncovered Roman remains, indicating agricultural and industrial activity from the second half of the first century until the third century AD. The finds included a moderately large
villa at Chew Park, where wooden writing tablets (the first in the UK) with ink writing were found. There is also evidence from the
Pagans Hill Roman Temple at
Chew Stoke, and a villa at
Keynsham.
The Saxon advance from the east seems to have been halted by battles between the British and Saxons, for example; at the siege of Badon
Mons Badonicus (which may mave been in the Bath region eg at
Solsbury Hill), or
Bathampton Down. This area became the border between the
Romano-British Celts and the
West Saxons following the
Battle of Deorham in 577 AD. The Western
Wandsdyke was probably built during the 5th or 6th century. The ditch is on the north side, so presumably it was used by the
Celts as a defence against
Saxons encroaching from the upper
Thames valley. According to the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Saxon
Cenwalh achieved a breakthrough against the
British Celtic tribes, with victories at
Bradford-on-Avon (in the
Avon Gap in the Wansdyke) in 652 AD. In 675,
Osric, King of the
Hwicce, set up a monastic house at Bath, probably using the walled area as its precinct.
King Offa of
Mercia gained control of this monastery in 781 and rebuilt the church, which was dedicated to
St. Peter. In the ninth century the old Roman street pattern had been lost and it had become a royal possession, with
King Alfred laying out the town afresh, leaving its south-eastern quadrant as the abbey precinct.
Edgar of England was crowned king of England in
Bath Abbey in 973.
King
William Rufus granted the city to a royal physician,
John of Tours, who became Bishop of
Wells and Abbot of Bath in 1088. It was papal policy for bishops to move to more urban seats, and he translated his own from Wells to Bath. He planned and began a much larger church as his cathedral, to which was attached a priory, with the bishop's palace beside it.
By the 15th century, Bath's abbey church was badly dilapidated and in need of repairs.
Oliver King,
Bishop of Bath and Wells, decided in 1500 to rebuild it on a smaller scale. The new church was completed just a few years before Bath Priory was
dissolved in 1539 by
Henry VIII. The abbey church was allowed to become derelict before being restored as the city's parish church in the
Elizabethan period, when the city revived as a
spa. The
baths were improved and the city began to attract the aristocracy. Bath was granted
city status by
Royal Charter by Queen
Elizabeth I in
1590.
Keynsham, said to be named after
Saint Keyne, developed into a medieval market town, its growth prompted by the foundation of an influential and prosperous
abbey, founded by the Victorine order of
Augustinian monks founded around 1170. It survived until the
dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 and a house was built on the site. The remains have been designated as grade I
listed building by
English Heritage. The town was the site of a battle between royalist forces and the rebel
Duke of Monmouth.
During the
English Civil War, Somerset, which was largely
Parliamentarian, was the site of a number of important battles between the
Royalists and the
Parliamentarians. The
Battle of Lansdowne was fought on
July 5 1643 on the northern outskirts of the city.
In 1668
Thomas Guidott, who had been a student of chemistry and medicine at
Wadham College Oxford, moved to Bath and set up practice. He became interested in the curative properties of the waters and in 1676 he wrote
A discourse of Bathe, and the hot waters there. Also, Some Enquiries into the Nature of the water. This brought the health-giving properties of the hot mineral waters to the attention of the country and soon the aristocracy started to arrive to partake in them. Several areas of the city underwent development during the
Stuart period, and this increased during
Georgian times in response to increasing numbers of people visiting the spa and resort town and requiring accommodation. The architects
John Wood the elder and his son
John Wood the younger laid out the new quarters in streets and squares, the identical facades of which gave an impression of palatial scale and classical decorum. The creamy gold of
Bath stone further unified the city, much of it obtained from the
limestone Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines, which were owned by
Ralph Allen (1694–1764). Allen, in order to advertise the quality of his quarried limestone, commissioned the elder John Wood to build him a country house on his
Prior Park estate between the city and the mines. It connected to the
Kennet and Avon Canal which linked the
River Thames at
Reading and the
Floating Harbour at
Bristol, joining the River Avon at Bath via
Bath Locks. The
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway connected Bath and
Bournemouth. It was jointly operated by the
Midland Railway and the
London and South Western Railway (L&SWR). After the
1 January 1923 Grouping joint ownership of the S&D passed to the
LMS and the
Southern Railway. The area was also served by the
Bristol and North Somerset Railway that connected
Bristol with towns in the
Somerset coalfield. The line was opened in 1873 between Bristol and
Radstock, where it joined with an earlier freight only line from
Frome. The biggest civil engineering project on the line was the
Pensford Viaduct over the
River Chew. The viaduct is 995 feet long, reaches a maximum height of 95 feet to rail level and consists of 16 arches. It is now a Grade II
listed building. Freight services on the branch line ceased in 1951. The line achieved some fame after closure by its use in the film
The Titfield Thunderbolt, but the track was taken up in 1958.
During
World War II, between the evening of
25 April and the early morning of
27 April 1942, Bath suffered three air raids in reprisal for
RAF raids on the
German cities of
Lübeck and
Rostock. The three raids formed part of the
Luftwaffe campaign popularly known as the
Baedeker Blitz; over 400 people were killed, and more than 19,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed. Houses in the
Royal Crescent,
Circus and
Paragon were burnt out along with the Assembly Rooms, while the south side of
Queen Square was destroyed. All have since been reconstructed.
The River Chew suffered a major flood in 1968 with serious damage to towns and villages along its route, including
Chew Stoke,
Chew Magna,
Stanton Drew,
Publow,
Woollard,
Compton Dando and
Chewton Keynsham. The flood even swept away the bridge at
Pensford.
Geography
Bath and North East Somerset covers an area of, of which two thirds is
green belt. It stretches from the outskirts of
Bristol, south into the
Mendip Hills and east to the southern
Cotswold Hills and
Wiltshire border. Surrounding local government areas include Bristol,
North Somerset,
Somerset,
South Gloucestershire, and Wiltshire.
The city of
Bath is the principal settlement in the district, but BANES also covers
Keynsham,
Midsomer Norton,
Radstock and the
Chew Valley. Bath lies on the
River Avon and its tributaries such as the
River Chew and
Midford Brook cross the area.
In the west of the area the Chew Valley consists of the valley of the River Chew and is generally low-lying and undulating. It is bounded by higher ground ranging from
Dundry Down to the north, the
Lulsgate Plateau to the west, the
Mendip Hills to the south and the
Hinton Blewett,
Marksbury and
Newton Saint Loe plateau areas to the east. The River Chew was dammed in the 1950s to create
Chew Valley Lake, which provides
drinking water for the nearby city of
Bristol and surrounding areas. The lake is a prominent landscape feature of the valley, a focus for recreation, and is internationally recognised for its
nature conservation interest, because of the bird species, plants and insects.
To the north of
Bath are
Lansdown, Langridge and
Solsbury hills. These are outliers of the
Cotswolds.
Governance
Historically part of the county of
Somerset, Bath was made a
county borough in 1889 so being independent of the newly created
administrative Somerset
county council, which covered the rest of B&NES. The area that would become B&NES became part of
Avon when that
non-metropolitan county was created in 1974. Since the abolition of Avon in 1996, Bath has been the main centre of the
unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), one of the four authorities that replaced Avon.
Before the
Reform Act of 1832 Bath elected two members to the
unreformed House of Commons. Bath now has a single
parliamentary constituency, with
Liberal Democrat Don Foster as
Member of Parliament. The rest of the area falls within the
Wansdyke constituency, which covers the part of B&NES that isn't in the
Bath constituency. It also contains four wards or parts of wards from
South Gloucestershire Council. It is named after the former
Wansdyke district. At the next general election 2009/2010 much of this constituency will change to
North East Somerset (UK Parliament constituency). The current MP is
Dan Norris.
Since B&NES was created, no
political party has been in overall control of the council. The
Liberal Democrats quickly became the dominant party, but in the local elections on
3 May 2007 the
Conservative Party won 31 seats and are now the dominant party, though they don't have a majority. The
Labour Party has only five seats, none of which are in Bath.
The current council composes of:
The whole council will be up for re-election in
2011.
Local concerns include
traffic calming measures,
council tax, development of the large Western Riverside
brownfield land site in Bath, and the now popular, but long delayed
Thermae Bath Spa development. On
10 December 2003, Bath and North East Somerset was granted
Fairtrade Zone status.
Bath and North East Somerset Council runs one of the most successful youth democracy groups in the UK, DAFBY (Democratic Action for B&NES Youth). The group are consulted by the council on a wide variety of issues that affect young people. In May 2008, DAFBY received Outstanding status by
OFSTED and now delivers training for other youth participation organisations, as well as supporting the local Member of
Youth Parliament, Sarah McGlone.
Demography
| Population Profile |
| UK Census 2001 |
BANES UA |
South West England |
England |
| Total population |
169,040 |
4,928,434 |
49,138,831 |
| Foreign born |
11.2% |
9.4% |
9.2% |
| White |
97.3% |
97.7% |
91% |
| Asian |
0.5% |
0.7% |
4.6% |
| Black |
0.5% |
0.4% |
2.3% |
| Christian |
71.0% |
74.0% |
72% |
| Muslim |
0.4% |
0.5% |
3.1% |
| Hindu |
0.2% |
0.2% |
1.1% |
| No religion |
19.5% |
16.8% |
15% |
| Over 75 years old |
8.9% |
9.3% |
7.5% |
| Unemployed |
2.0% |
2.6% |
3.3% |
170,238 people live in the area and approximately half live in the City of Bath making it 12 times more densely populated than the rest of the area.
According to the
UK Government's
2001 census, Bath, together with North East Somerset, which includes areas around Bath as far as the
Chew Valley, has a population of 169,040, with an average age of 39.9 (the national average being 38.6). According to the same statistics, the district is overwhelmingly populated by people of a white ethnic background at 97.2% — significantly higher than the national average of 90.9%. Other non-white ethnic groups in the district, in order of population size, are
multiracial at 1%, Asian at 0.5% and black at 0.5% (the national averages are 1.3%, 4.6% and 2.1%, respectively).
The district is largely
Christian at 71%, with no other religion reaching more than 0.5%. These figures generally compare with the national averages, though the
non-religious, at 19.5%, are significantly more prevalent than the national 14.8%. Since Bath is known for the restorative powers of its waters, it's interesting to note that only 7.4% of the population describe themselves as "not healthy" in the last 12 months, compared to a national average of 9.2%; only 15.8% of the inhabitants say they've had a long-term illness, as against 18.2% nationally.
|57,188
|96,992
|107,637
|113,732
|113,351
|112,972
|123,185
|134,346
|144,950
|156,421
|154,083
|164,737
|169,045
|}
Economy
This is a chart of trend of regional gross value added of North and North East Somerset and South Gloucestershire at current basic prices
published
(pp.240-253) by
Office for National Statistics with figures in millions of British Pounds Sterling.
| Year |
Regional Gross Value Added |
Agriculture |
Industry |
Services |
| 1995 |
5,916 |
125 |
1,919 |
3,872 |
| 2000 |
8,788 |
86 |
2,373 |
6,330 |
| 2003 |
10,854 |
67 |
2,873 |
7,914 |
Settlements
The major towns and villages in the district are:
Transport
Bath is approximately south-east of the larger city and port of
Bristol, to which it's linked by the
A4 road, and is a similar distance south of the
M4 motorway. Bath and North East Somerset is also served by the
A37 and
A368 trunk roads, and a network of smaller roads.
Bath is connected to Bristol and the sea by the
River Avon, navigable via
locks by small boats. The river was connected to the
River Thames and London by the
Kennet and Avon Canal in 1810 via
Bath Locks; this waterway – closed for many years, but restored in the last years of the 20th century – is now popular with
narrow boat users. Bath is on
National Cycle Route 4, with one of Britain's first
cycleways, the
Bristol & Bath Railway Path, to the west, and an eastern route toward
London on the canal towpath. Although Bath doesn't have an airport, the city is about from
Bristol International Airport, which may be reached by road or by rail via
Bristol Temple Meads railway station.
Bath is served by the
Bath Spa railway station (designed by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel), which has regular connections to
London Paddington,
Bristol Temple Meads,
Cardiff Central,
Swansea,
Exeter,
Plymouth and
Penzance (see
Great Western Main Line), and also
Westbury,
Warminster,
Salisbury,
Southampton,
Portsmouth and
Brighton (see
Wessex Main Line). Services are provided by
First Great Western. There is a suburban station on the main line,
Oldfield Park, and at Keynsham, which have a limited commuter service to Bristol.
Green Park station was once operated by the
Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway, whose line (always steam driven) climbed over the
Mendips and served many towns and villages on its run to
Bournemouth; this example of an English rural line was closed by
Beeching in March 1966, with few remaining signs of its existence, but its Bath station building survives and now houses a number of shops.
Education
Bath has two
universities. The
University of Bath was established in 1966 and has grown to become a leading university in the United Kingdom. The university is known, academically, for the physical sciences, mathematics, architecture, management and technology.
Bath Spa University was first granted degree-awarding powers in 1992 as a
university college (Bath Spa University College), before being granted
university status in August 2005. It has schools in the following subject areas: Art and Design, Education, English and Creative Studies, Historical and Cultural Studies, Music and the Performing Arts, and Social Sciences. Special needs education is provided by
Three Ways School.
Sports
Bath Rugby plays at the
Recreation Ground,.
Bath Cricket Club play at the North Parade cricket ground next door to the Recreation Ground.
Bath City F.C. and
Team Bath F.C. (affiliated with the
University of Bath) are the major
football teams in Bath city but there are also clubs in the surrounding areas such as;
Bishop Sutton A.F.C.,
Radstock Town F.C. and
Welton Rovers F.C..
The
Bath Half Marathon is run annually through the city streets, with over 10,000 runners. Bath also has a thriving
cycling community, with places for biking including
Royal Victoria Park, 'The Tumps' in Odd Down/east, the jumps on top of
Lansdown, and Prior Park. Places for biking near Bath include
Brown's Folly in
Batheaston and Box Woods, in
Box. Bath is also the home of the Bath American Football Club, which has been playing
American Football in the city since 2001.
There are sport and leisure centres in Bath,
Keynsham the
Chew Valley and
Midsomer Norton. Much of the surrounding countryside is accessible for walking and both
Chew Valley Lake and
Blagdon Lake provide extensive
fishing under permit from
Bristol Water. The
River Chew and most of its tributaries also have fishing but this is generally under licences to local angling clubs. Chew Valley Sailing Club is situated on Chew Valley Lake and provides dinghy sailing at all levels and hosts national and international competitions.
Places of interest
There are a total of 72,000 dwellings within the area, 6,408 are
listed buildings, 662 Grade 1and 145 Grade 2 and classified as of historical or architectural importance. These include many buildings and areas of Bath such as
Lansdown Crescent, the
Royal Crescent,
The Circus and
Pulteney Bridge. Outside the city there are also several historic manor houses such as
St Catherine's Court and
Sutton Court.
Bath is a major tourist centre and has a range of museums and art galleries including the
Victoria Art Gallery, the
Museum of East Asian Art, and
Holburne Museum of Art, numerous commercial art galleries and antique shops, as well as numerous museums, among them
Bath Postal Museum,
The Museum of Costume, the
Jane Austen Centre, the
Herschel Museum of Astronomy and the
Roman Baths.
The
Radstock Museum details the history of the
Somerset coalfield.
Further Information
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