The beginnings of Bath

3 min read

Let me take you on a journey. We are going to go back hundreds of years from the Iron Age and the Romans. I have always been in love with the city of Bath. It is a great and historic place to live and work and if you’re considering a move here I can recommend that you look at some Letting agents Bath like the ones are pritchards-bath.co.uk. Here is how it may have been founded.

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Bath goes way back and it’s all to do with the water here. Although we don’t really know who they were praying to originally, it is thought to be the Goddess Sulis. Our Iron Age/Celtic ancestors, whatever you prefer to think of them, decided that this place was duly blessed and the water Goddess was heavy in her presence in the area. They’d had pretty good evidence of this when Prince Bladud decided that taking a dip in the warm spa waters could only be a good thing for the leprosy he was suffering from. As if by magic, which most people believe it was, Bladud emerged fully cured and was then free to be King of the Britons. Bladud found the city of Bath so that others might be able to benefit.

Soon others would come to take the waters and leave offerings as such was the cities fame. It soon attracted the attention of the Romans who did their usual job of when it came to deity sites. The conversation might of going like this as an emissary of Roman goes on an away day fact finding mission with a local chieftain(they wouldn’t have spoken in English by the way).

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“So, this is the famous waters then is it?”

“Yes Mr Gaius sir, it is the famous waters that tis said did cure our old King Bladud from a skin affliction”.

“Lovely. Well done. So, um, who is the Goddess around here for this place?”

“Why, it is our beloved Sulis”

“Ahh.  So, what’s her story then?”

“Well, she was formed from the waters and the sun sir.”

“Right, right. Sounds a bit like our Goddess Minerva that. Do you mind awfully if we put a tiny little shrine here to her? It won’t take up too much room. That way when the lads pop by they can pop a little votive down and take a little dip. That ok?”

And the Chieftain looks over at the cohort of menacing legionnaires and the burly Centurion on his horse and realises pretty quickly that it might be in the tribe’s best interests to say yes. These Roman’s will soon be gone anyway so what’s the problem. Except they don’t and the Minerva shrine gets bigger and poor old Sulis only gets a mention in the cities name Aquae Sulis before the Saxons come and pull it down.

 

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