This September, alongside our annual walking festival, Bathscape also hosted a Landscape City Conference looking at what the Bathscape Partnership has achieved and to inspire Bath's future. This is the penultimate episode of Footprints, and with the project itself drawing to a close, this episode shares a flavour of the day.

The conference was opened by Councillor Oli Henman who is the Cabinet Project Lead for Climate Change with Bath and North East Somerset Council. He was followed by two keynote speakers Andrew Grant and Dan Merrett before we hear from each of the three panels.

Clips from all of these are included and we also meet two Bath Spa 2nd year Architecture students Jazz and Marcus and hear their thoughts before and after the conference.

Keynote speakers

Andrew Grant, Director at Grant Associates, Chair Bathscape Board

Dan Merrett, Bathscape Manager

.

Panel 1 Accessing the therapeutic landscape

Julie Barnett (Chair), Professor of Health Psychology, University of Bath

Lucy Bartlett, Community Projects Officer, Bathscape

Zina Abdulla, PhD Researcher in Green Equity, University of Bath

Panel 2 A dynamic landscape city in an uncertain climate future

Alex Sherman (Chair), CEO Bath Preservation Trust, Bathscape Board Member

Marion Harney, Associate Dean and Professor of Buildings and Landscape Conversation, University of Bath, Chair UNESCO World Heritage Site Advisory Board and Enhancement Fund, Bathscape Member

Funda Kemal, Module Leader and Architecture Lecturer, Bath Spa University

Panel 3 Land use in the setting of a landscape city

Tom Boden (Chair), General Manager for the Bath Portfolio, National Trust, Bathscape Board Member

Amy Coulthard, Market Development Director, EnTrade

Hamish Evans, Head Farmer, Middle Ground Growers

Claire Loder and Jude Rice, Co-founders of Bloomin' Whiteway

Links

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk

Grant Associates - grant-associates.uk.com

Bath Preservation Trust - www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk

University of Bath - www.bath.ac.uk

Bath Spa University - www.bathspa.ac.uk

Unesco World Heritage Site for Bath - www.bathworldheritage.org.uk

National Trust - www.nationaltrust.org.uk

EnTrade - www.entrade.co.uk

Middle Ground Growers - www.middlegroundgrowers.com

Bloomin' Whiteway - www.bloomingwhiteway.com

Great Spa Towns of Europe - www.greatspatownsofeurope.eu

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

This episode takes the opportunity to explore Bath’s two relatively new universities. Each of them sits in a unique landscape.

The University of Bath, high up on Claverton Down, is a modernist 1960s campus surrounded by open skies, mature trees and sweeping views. It started life in 1966 as Bath University of Technology and was renamed the University of Bath 5 years later. It has grown from a student population of almost 1,500 in 1966 to just under 20,000 students now.  

Bath Spa University is set in a former country estate with lakes, temples and a 'Capability' Brown legacy. It became a university in 2005. It has a student population of just under 25,000.

Ralph Thompson is the Senior Lecturer in Zoology and Programme Leader for Wildlife Conservation at Bath Spa University and we hear about the university and grounds from him.

We are also joined by one of his students Evie de Gruyther who has just finished her degree at Bath Spa University getting a first class honours in Wildlife Conservation. She completed her dissertation this year by studying the bat population on the campus. She talks about her love of bats and what it was like to study at Bath Spa.

Marion Harney is Professor of Building and Landscape Conservation and Associate Dean for Education in the Faculty of Engineering and Design at the University of Bath. She is also the Chair of the Bath World Heritage Site Advisory Board.

She shows us around the university campus talking about the early super-structure architecture and the landscape design which was written into the initial brief to be a permanent feature of the campus.

We walked around amid the hot sun and torrential rain and we were joined by Badger the dog!

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

Bath Spa University - www.bathspa.ac.uk

University of Bath - www.bath.ac.uk

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk

This month's episode explores Bath’s industrial past and the enormous changes in the landscape Bath has seen over the decades, since many of the factories have disappeared. 

Bath’s architectural landscape is often only viewed as Georgian or Roman and we forget that it has had an illustrious industrial past.

We meet Peter Dunn, who from the age of 7 wanted to build cranes. He was taken on as an apprentice by Stothert and Pitt, Bath's 'Crane maker to the World', and he is responsible for restoring one of their oldest cranes, which now sits outside Newarks Works, where Stothert and Pitt used to be.

Following this, writer and local historian Paul Fisher talks about Bath's furniture manufacturing history and the modernist buildings which housed them. We start at Lidl and walk over to the Hermann Miller building on the city side of the river.

Finally we find out from Steve George what kinds of considerations are needed when deciding what can and should be built in this wonderful Unesco World Heritage city. Steve is Bath and North East Somerset Council's Principal Planner in the Planning Policy Department.

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

Stothert and Pitt

'Oldest Stothert and Pitt crane set to be restored' - BBC online

Paul Fisher - Walks to Works 2, Smallish Publishing 2025

Bath and North East Somerset Council Planning Policy Department - www.bathnes.gov.uk/local-planning-policy-and-guidance

The UK's largest free celebration of nature returns to Bristol and Bath from 7th -15th June and the theme of the festival this year is water.

So in this episode of Footprints, we celebrate the river Avon and the Kennet and Avon canal surrounding Bath.

The Canal and River Trust volunteers are out on their workboat Sulis twice a week, keeping the waterways clear of rubbish and weeds. We go along for the ride as they take their boat up to its summer mooring on the canal. They cover the river Avon from Hanham to Bath and then the Kennet and Avon canal from Bath to Dundas Aqueduct. We hear from Mike Ashman and his team including in order of appearance Bill, John, Trevor, Rich and trainee skipper Peter.

Our rivers have been in the news a lot lately, so Amy Wade, River Engagement and Education lead at BART (Bristol Avon Rivers Trust) tells us about the health of our rivers and what we can do to help.

Finally, we walk along the river Avon with Lizzie Venning from the Bath Riverline project. The aim of this project is to improve Bath residents’ connection with the river. We started out at Newbridge Park near the Park and Ride and next to Bath Marina and we walked all the way through to Batheaston where it was very easy to get a bus back to the centre of Bath, and then to the Park and Ride at Newbridge. 

Joanne Radway the National Trust Community Ranger for Bathampton Meadows finished off our walk by telling us about the work they do there.

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) - www.bristolavonriverstrust.org

River Hub - www.riverhub.co.uk

The Bath River Line Project - www.bathnes.gov.uk/bath-river-line

Canal and River Trust - www.canalrivertrust.org.uk

Waterspace - www.bathnes.gov.uk/waterspace-connected

Festival of Nature - www.bnhc.org.uk/festival-of-nature/events/

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk

In this episode we explore three of the Downs of Bath. It's debatable how many there are in Bath - some say seven others say 9...

We start up on Bannerdown which sits up above Batheaston and has been common land since the early 18th century. Secretary of the Bannerdown Freeholders Association, Rob Kendall shows us around.

Next we head over to Lansdown to find out about the new Tramper Trail. Nicole Daw from the Cotswold National Landscape tells us about how they, together with Bathscape have developed a new accessible route around Lansdown.

Bath’s great architect John Wood the Elder is known for designing some of Bath’s beautiful georgian buildings, but it's less well-known that he was also convinced that there were the remains of druidic temples up on Lansdown. Local historian Mike Wiliams has done his own research on this and he shows us what John Wood had found and tells us whether or not they had anything to do with druids…

Howard Burton has written a book - Charmy Down: Bath's wartime airfield, peacetime village and Cold War secret. We hear about how it was used during and after the second world war and some of the stories connected to it.

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

Cotswold Voluntary Wardens - https://www.cotswolds-nl.org.uk/get-involved/volunteering/

Bannerdown Common - https://www.batheaston-pc.gov.uk/bannerdown-common

Disabled Ramblers

Cotswold National Landscape Lansdown on the Level

John Wood’s Moon Temple - https://www.bathscape.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/John-Woods-Moon-Temple-FINAL_2024.pdf

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk

Join us this month as we explore some of the many ways Bathonians use the beautiful Bathscape in their free time.

The episode gets going at the saturday morning parkrun up at the National Trust skyline. Parkrun celebrated its 20th anniversary last October and there are now said to be 10m registered runners in 23 different countries. Parkruns are completely free. You can walk, run, jog, volunteer or spectate. It is a 5k course and takes place every Saturday morning.

Those who featured in this section were Bath Bats Founder Andy Mullett, Bath Parkrun Founder Helen Conner, Bath Parkrun Course Director James Gorman and Parkrun Master Runner Tom Hutchison.

We need a rest after all that running and so relax on the river with paddleboarder and architect Meg Collin.

Bathscape is well-known for organising the annual walking festival here in Bath and we thought it would be fun to hear from Andrew aka  'Abel' Lawrence who has written a book called ‘I walked every street in Bath’ .

We finish up at Odd Down Sports Ground where there's a charity called All Cycle Bath and West. Here Hannah Samuel shows us around the amazing variety of accessible bikes they have stored up there. 

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

All Cycle Bath and West - 

https://www.allcyclebathandwest.com/home

Bath skyline parkrun - https://www.parkrun.org.uk/bathskyline/

Bath Junior parkrun - https://www.parkrun.org.uk/bathodddown-juniors/

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk

Bath skyline walk - https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/bath-bristol/bath-skyline/bath-skyline-walk

This year marks the 250th anniversary since Jane Austen's birth in 1775 and as she lived in Bath from 1801 to 1806, Bath will be celebrating! We find out from the Jane Austen Festival Director Georgia Delve what will be happening in the city this summer. Lizzie Bennet (Pride and Prejudice), aka actor Lauren Falconer talks about Jane Austen's time in Bath and the two novels she set in the city, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

We visit a writer's event at Bath Central Library and meet three local authors, Jenny Knight, J F Penn and David WIlliamson.

And Sam Drew from award-winning bookshop, Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights gives us his curation of books inspired by the city of Bath.

Books mentioned by Sam

Did he do it? from The Governess and other Stories, Stefan Zweig

The Frequency of Us, Keith Stuart

The Shape of Darkness, Laura Purcell

Hidden Nature, Alys Fowler

Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald

Outlandish, Nick Hunt

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

Lauren Falconer, Actor and Performer

Jane Austen Centre and Festival

Mr B's Emporium of Reading Delights

Bath Central Library

Bath Between the Wars, David Williamson, Hobnob Press

Pilgrimage, J F Penn, J F Penn Books

Bath Through Time, Jenny Knight, AMberley Publishing

This month join us as we explore the follies of Bath.

They were the thing in the 18th and 19th centuries. If you had cash to splash, why not show it off in the guise of a temple, a tower or a castle?

Dr Amy Frost, Senior Curator, Bath Preservation Trust takes me up to the top of Beckford's Tower and talks about the man himself, William Beckford.

We enlist the help of the Editor of the Folly Fellowship Magazine Jonathan Holt to try and pin down exactly what a folly is.

Finally Fliss Swallow is Head Gardener of the National Trust's Prior Park Landscape Gardens and she shows us around the garden's follies.

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

Beckford's Tower - www.beckfordstower.org.uk

Bath Preservation Trust - www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk

Prior Park Landscape Gardens, National Trust - www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/bath-bristol/prior-park-landscape-garden

Folly Fellowship - www.follies.org.uk

Map of follies - www.follies.org.uk/index.php/map

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk

Happy New Year and welcome back to Footprints!

In this our first episode of 2025, we look back at our highlights from 2024. More than 40 people took part in the shows last year and we'd like to offer them all a huge thanks for the time, knowledge and passion they put into their work and which shows through in their contributions to each episode. They and the organisations they represent are at the very heart of the Bathscape and we will hear from many more in 2025.

Clips

Ep 26 March - Geology of Bath: Professor Maurice Tucker tells us about his hero William Smith who is dubbed the Father of Geology. He lived locally at Tucking Mill and designed the first geological map.

Ep 27 April - Bath Goes Gardening: Professor Marion Harney shows us around Sydney Gardens describing what the pleasure gardens were like in the time of Jane Austen.

Ep 26 March - Geology of Bath: Simon Hart takes us down his mine - Hartham Stone Mine where we hear about the work of the pickers before mechanisation.

Ep 30 July - Full Steam Ahead!: Writer Colin Maggs talks about his lifelong passion for steam trains, a passion which has led him to write 114 books!

Ep 25 February - Bath in Film: Actor Charlie McCloud talks about what it is like to be an extra on the set of Bridgerton.

Ep 30 July - Full Steam Ahead!: Karl Baxter enthuses about running the gruelling 200 mile ultramarathon race backwards and forwards through the Combe Down Tunnel.

Ep 27 April - Bath Goes Gardening: Carol Stone shows us around Alice Park Community Gardens and tells us how to manage slugs.

Ep 31 August - Hedgelaying, Scything and Dry Stone Walling: In this clip, Dave Pegler describes the ancient art of scything.

Ep 28 May - Birding in Bath: Birding expert Lucy Starling takes us to Bathampton Meadows in search of a pair of sedge warblers returning to their nest.

Ep 33 October - Take a Walk on the Wansdyke: Local historian Mike WIlliams shows us the ancient monument at the top of Stantonbury Hill Fort.

Ep 29 June - Bath City Farm: Farm Manager Ella Holmes takes us to meet the pigs and we hear from a participant of the mental wellbeing group.

Ep 34 November - Renewable Bath: Architect Funda Kemal talks about her animation video which shows what Bath might look like with wind turbines, solar panels and green walls.

Ep 35 December - A Community Pub Crawl: Simon Coombe outlines the challenges the community faced, bringing the Hop Pole Inn up to scratch, ready to be opened on 25th January 2025.

Ep 32 September - Surfing the Generations: Bath College student Abi and Twerton's Forget-Me-Not club member Mary are in conversation.

Our thanks to all our contributors throughout 2024

Rachel Bowers, Director, Bath Film Office

Charlie McCloud, Actor

Emma Morris, Chief Operating Officer, Holburne Museum

Professor Maurice Tucker, Bath Geological Society

Mike WIlliams, Landscape Historian and Ecologist

Simon Hart, Managing Director and Owner, Hartham Park Stone Mine

Carol Stone, Volunteer Manager, Alice Park Community Gardens

Professor Marion Harney, University of Bath

Amie Cook, Community Ecologist, Team Wilder Ecological Advisory Service

Cat Baker, Ecologist and Manager, Wild About Bath

Lucy Starling, Birding Expert

Ed Drewitt, Peregrine Specialist

Marika Kovacs, Birding Expert

Staff, Volunteers and Members, Bath City Farm

Colin Maggs, Author and Railway Historian

Mike Beale, Secretary, Bath Railway Society

Karl Baxter, Runner, The Tunnel Ultramarathon

Mike Reed, Hedgelaying Expert

Dave Pegler, Scything Expert

Rob Morley, Dry Stone Walling Expert, Cotswolds Wardens

Robin Oldland, Dry Stone Walling Expert, Cotswolds Wardens

Chris Gannon, Health and Wellbeing Officer, Bath City Football Club Foundation, Reconnecting Twerton Club

Members, Reconnecting Twerton Club

Nicole Daw, Trails and Access Officer, Cotswolds National Landscape

Rob Mitchell, Supplementary School Coordinator, Bath and North East Somerset Council

Members, Black Families in Education Group, Bath and North East Somerset Council

Members, Forget-Me-Not Dementia Club, Twerton

Mitchell Horman, Coordinator Prince's Trust Programme, Bath College

Young People, Prince's Trust Programme, Bath College

Melanie Barge, Inspector of Ancient Monuments, Historic England

Robert Vermaat, Dutch Historian and Archivist

William Heath, Organiser, Kelston Roundhill Old Barn

Funda Kemal, Architect and Climate Activist

Robin Spalding, Programme Manager, Renewable Energy Team, Bath and North East Somerset Council

Steve Henwood, Member, The Bell Inn

Wendy Matthews, Member, The Bell Inn

Dom Moorhouse, Managing Director, The Packhorse

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk

For our mid-winter episode join us for a pub crawl to three cosy community - owned pubs in and around Bath.

The last few years have not been easy for pubs, with the pandemic, rising energy costs and inflation. More than 500 closed their doors in 2023, but community pubs it seems, are thriving.

The first pub to be bought by the community was The Red Lion in Preston, Hertfordshire in the early 1980s. According to the Plunkett Foundation, a charity which helps people set up community-owned business, as of January 2024 there were upwards of 180 community-owned pubs in the UK and Bath has three of them. 

In this episode we start at The Hop Pole Inn in Limpley Stoke. It was bought by the community and after three years of frantic fundraising and backbreaking work, it is set to open its doors on 25th January 2025 for the first time in 9 years.  Chair of the Board, Simon Coombe tells us all about it.

We move on to The Bell Inn in Walcott street which was the very first community-owned pub in Bath. It is also home to the Bath Festival Fringe office. Steve Henwood and Wendy Mathews are heavily involved in both the Festival Fringe and The Bell Inn and talk about what it means to them.

Finally we visit The Packhorse in South Stoke. Perched on the side of a steep hill overlooking the beautiful Midford Valley, The Packhorse has been the centre of South Stoke life since the start of the 17th century. Managing Director, Dom Moorhouse shows us around.

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

Save the Hop Pole Inn - www.limpleystokecbs.org

The Bell Inn - www.thebellinnbath.co.uk

Bath Fringe Festival - www.bathfringe.co.uk

The Packhorse - www.packhorsebath.co.uk

Plunkett Foundation - www.plunkett.co.uk

Plunkett UK Impact Report 2024 - www.plunkett.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Impact-Report-2024.pdf

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk