Bath Time!

One of the perks of being a “Blue Badge” guide is that sometimes you get invited “behind the scenes” to places not normally or often accessible to the general public. Thus over the years I’ve climbed up to see Big Ben, been to the Birmingham Assay Office and so on.

Well, on Thursday, I was able to join a group of guides going “behind the scenes”

at the Roman Baths in, er, Bath. We toured several of the tunnels not open to the public and saw Roman remains virtually as they were found by early 19^th century archaeologists. We even saw where water used to be siphoned off for the Mineral Water Hospital and where the spring was “bypassed” in the seventies to prevent contamination.

Really fascinating stuff.

Incidentally, behind the scenes or not, the Roman Bath is well worth visiting, either if you’ve never been before or else if you’ve not been for a long time. There are some very well done displays and models now and I never fail to be captivated by the head of Minerva which is one of the principal artefacts in the Bath.

Must get myself to Thermae though one of theses days.