Meetings | History of Bath Research Group

There will be an allocation of 15 minutes at the beginning of each meeting for "notes and queries" from members. The objective is to allow members to do the following:

Give a brief discourse on an item of research that they feel could be of interest to members but which doesn't merit a full talk. The maximum length of each contribution will be 5 minutes.
Allow members to pose queries that would help them with their research and where members may be able to contribute.

Programme for 2023-2024

Monday 11 September 2023

Title: Nature’s Favourite Child: Thomas Robins and the Art of the Georgian Garden

Venue: St Mary's Bathwick Church Hall 07:30 PM

Speaker: Cathryn Spence
Synopsis: Thomas Robins the Elder (1716–1770) recorded the country estates of the Georgian gentry—their orchards, Rococo gardens, and potagers—like no other, with both topographical accuracy and delightful artistry, often bordering his gouaches with entrancing tendrils, shells, leaves, and birds. Robins's skill was honed by the delicacy required for his early career as a fan painter and is shown too in his exquisite paintings of butterflies, flowers, and birds. Cathryn will introduce the work of Robins through his paintings of gardens at Honington and Painswick alongside his extraordinary record of Bath as it was transformed by architect John Wood the Elder. She will also discuss the significant connections Robins made in Dorset and how this circle of friends and patrons was part of an international exchange of exotic butterfly and plant specimens, which included the Duchess of Portland and Sir Joseph Banks. Copies of Cathryn’s lavish study, long listed for the William MB Berger prize, will be available to buy after the talk. If you are interested in purchasing a copy please email Cathryn on thomasrobinselder@gmail.com. Priced at £40, Cathryn will bring your copy to the talk.

Monday 09 October 2023

Title: Life and times of Thomas Goulding - 1697 1744 Toyman and jeweller

Venue: St Mary's Bathwick Church Hall 07:30 PM

Speaker: John MacDonald
Synopsis: Thomas Goulding (1697-1744) was from West Wiltshire farming stock. He came to Bath some time in the 1720s, with £100 in his pocket. He started a business as a Toyman/Jeweller in the City. He soon started writing satirical works, targeting, among others, the great and good of Bath. He joined the local militia force and took an active part in extravagant celebrations, particularly of Royal events. He was clearly a staunch supporter of the Royal family. He was a partner in Bath’s first commercial brewery. He married the daughter of a Freshford clothier and may have had a son by his servant! When John Wood obtained the right to develop the Abbey Orchard, Goulding was one of the first to lease plots and build properties which stand today. Unlike many citizens of Somerset, a copy of his will has survived WWII. Today he would probably be termed an Entrepreneur.

Monday 13 November 2023

Title: Bath Between the Wars

Venue: St Mary's Bathwick Church Hall 7:30pm

Speaker: David Williamson
Synopsis: The theme of this talk is to show often by highlighting individual examples how global events and trends, be they economic, political, cultural or social, impinged on the everyday life of Bath and its citizens during the inter-war period. Over the twenty years 1919-1939 they ranged from the impact of the Spanish flu’, the post war economic recession and the labour unrest it triggered, culminating in the General Strike of 1926. After a brief respite Bath was then buffeted by the crises of the 1930s: the Great Depression and the rise of Fascism at home and abroad. Jewish and political refugees from Germany opened the eyes of Bathonians to the nature of Nazi Germany, while reports from Spain brought home the reality of the suffering in the Spanish Civil War, as did the presence of Haile Selassie in Fairfield House, the consequences of Mussolini’s conquest of Abyssinia.. By March 1939 after Hitler’s annexation of Bohemia, the drift to war accelerated. Over the next six months conscription was re-introduced, plans for evacuees from London drawn up by the Corporation and blackout exercises held, and on 3 September war was declared. To understand more fully the impact of these events on the city, the character of inter-war Bath is explored: was it a health resort, a cultural gem or a backwater populated by retired officials of the Raj and impoverished spinsters? Did its industrial sector modify its reputation as the ‘Athens of the South-West’