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Tuesday 28 May 1998

Fran and I spent the third night of our holiday in the seaside town of Weston Super Mare, in the Corbiere Hotel, named after a famous race horse - which accounts for the horse over the door!

Weston is a wonderful centre for touring the Avon area, with Bath, Bristol, Cheddar Gorge and caves and numerous other places within easy reach. We were aiming to visit Bath and Bristol before moving northwards into the Cotswolds for the last half of our holiday.

After breakfast we made for the city of Bath and headed first of all to the remains of the Roman bath complex where folk would flock to take the waters a mere 1800 years or so ago.
The Romans named Bath "Acquae Sulis" and created the magnificent spa here due to a hot spring that gushes a constant huge number of gallons of water every day.
The Great Bath. Fed by the warm spring of the spa, this was the great communal pool.
The baths complex had several pools, warm, tepid, cool etc. and sauna areas heated by a furnace via a hypercaust system.
The current building has a gallery around which surviving roman statues have been placed.

The cathedral overlooks the open pool.
There are a couple of mosaics on display, the one shown here being the better of the two. This shows some fanciful "sea" creatures disporting themselves and is displayed in a raised casing.

Below, walkways have been built above the original Roman paving to ensure that there is no further wearing of the stone from visitors' feet. The ground level of the Roman days is several feet below today's pavement level.
The goddess Minerva was worshipped at the sacred springs that disgorge hundreds of gallons of hot water every day.

This bronze head of the goddess was found on the site.
The outlet from the spring and the original Roman built drainage tunnel. The cylinder contains equipment for measuring the flow of water.
These columns of tiles held up the floor whilst hot air from a furnace provided underfloor heating.

Finally we move forward to the next page to the Pump Room and maybe a taste of the spring water.
   
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