Happy New Year and welcome back to Footprints!

In this our first episode of 2024, we look back at our highlights from 2023. More than 40 people took part in the shows last year and a huge thanks must go to them for making the episodes so fascinating and varied to listen to. They and the organisations they represent are at the very heart of the Bathscape and we will hear from many more in 2024.

Clips

Ep 13 February - Living Working Bath: Mark Batterham shows us around the Moorlands Estate, the first council estate planned after the second world war and opened by Nye Bevin.

Ep 14 March - Art in the Landscape: Marian Hill talks about her exquisitely intricate and accurate identification charts of bugs, beetles and butterflies, using collage.

Ep 15 April - Wellbeing in Nature: Lucy Bartlett leads a walk for students as part of Be Well week and three students talk about why being outdoors helps their mental health.

Ep 16 May - The Call of the Wild: One of the wildlife enthusiasts featured in the episode Catherine Turner talks about her passion for spiders and has me peering deep into the long grass .

Ep 17 June - The Love of Trees: Joe McSorley, lead ranger for the National Trust shows us around Prior Park Gardens and tells us why the gardens were created and what the trees were used for.

Ep 18 July - Haile Selassie in Bath: Ras Benji allows us to tag along on a tour of Fairfield House where Emperor Haili Selassie lived during his time in exile during WW2.

Ep 18 July - Haile Selassie in Bath: Pauline Swaby-Wallace shows around the Windrush Centre and describes what it was like to come to Britain at that time.

Ep 19 August - What did the Romans ever do for Bath?: Combe Down resident Helen talks about the time she found a skeleton of a roman citizen buried in her garden wall!

Ep 20 September - Farming in Bath: Bob Honey has a pedigree herd of Herefords, but he also has a cider apple orchard. This is a clip of him describing the year in the life of an apple. You will hear glorious names of apple varieties such as Slack-ma-Girdle!

Ep 21 October - Radical Bath: In this clip, Professor emerita June Hannam talks about why Bath was important to the Suffragettes and tree planting at Eagle House.

Ep 21 October - Radical Bath: the episode brings us right into the present with Kidical Mass campaigners talking about their mission to create safer streets for children to cycle in.

Ep 22 November - Bath at Night: We visit the West of England Falconry Centre in Newton St Loe and hear about Bella the rock owl during one of their flying displays.

Ep 23 December - Three Grand Schemes: This episodes hears about Bath Preservation Trust's renovations to Beckford's Tower, one of the National Trust's Green Corridor schemes at Bathampton Meadows and the recently-opened Cleveland Pools. In this clip three inspiring women talk about their experience of swimming in temperatures of around 10 degrees!

Our thanks to all our contributors throughout 2023

Stuart Burroughs, director, Museum of Bath at Work

Diana Ahmed, Twerton artist

Mark Batterham, local historian

Jessica Palmer, Bath artist

Perry Harris, Bath artist, watercolourist and cartoonist

Marian Hill, Bath illustrator

Chris Pound, architect, writer and World Heritage expert

George Cook, project officer, Avon Wildlife Trust

Mike WIlliams, Bath naturalist, specialist in beetles

Catherine Turner, Bath naturalist, specialist in spiders

Alan Rayner, Bath naturalist, specialist in mosses, lichens and liverworts

Helen Hobbs, organiser, Chalcombe Toad Patrol

Karen Renshaw, ecologist, Bath and North East Somerset Council

Dr Penny Hay, co-founder, Forest of Imagination

Andrew Grant, co-founder, Forest of Imagination

Savita Wilmott, director, Festival of Nature

Joe McSorley, lead ranger, National Trust

Hugh Williams, tree specialist and walk leader

Princess Esther Sellassie Antonhin, great granddaughter of Haile Selassie

Ras Benji, manager, Fairfield House

Pauline Swaby-Wallace, director, BEMSCA (Bath Ethnic Minority Senior Citizens Association)

Bob Whitaker, archaeological adviser BACAS (Bath and Counties Archaeological Society)

Lindsey Braidley, director, Clore Learning Centre, Roman Baths

+Helen, Combe Down resident

Bob Honey, Bath farmer

Biddy, Bath farmer

Mark Smith, adviser FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group)

Andrew Swift, local historian

Professor Emerita June Hannam, University of the West of England

Annie Beardsley, Bath Natural Theatre Company

Saskia Heijltjes, organiser, Kidical Mass

Naomi Johns, manager WOEF (West of England Falconry Centre)

Joe Middleton, manager, Herschel Museum

Sam Grief, manager, Cleveland Pools

Siobhan, Rachel, and Victoria, Cleveland Pools swimmers

Dr Amy Frost, curator, Bath Preservation Trust

Joanna Rolfe, project officer, National Trust

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk