Bath – Reviewing the Walk

Bath Abbey sits, as you might expect, in the centre of the city. The Roman Baths are next to it and while I took a shot of the baths ceiling with its dome, I didn’t have the time to justify the cost of entry and I am sorry to say I didn’t go into the abbey either. So now I have an excellent excuse to revisit the place, and next time I will take my family – and if that’s not a good recommendation of the place, I don’t don’t what is!

So my original reason for going to Bath was to see the Contemporary Tapestry: Here and Now exhibition at the Holburne Museum. I was able to take a very enjoyable look at the city as well – its parks and architecture, its quiet and more noisy areas. On my home, prompted by my viewing of the tapestry exhibition,I stopped off at Caldicot to take a look at the commissioned tapestry I had designed and woven for the library building. So there are a couple of extra images in my review of my walk this week because I am pleased to say that 17 years after the tapestry was installed, it is still looking good and not too dirty.

I was told that people still ask about it and that is good – the design depicts the two Severn Estuary suspension bridges, the patterns of rocks and mud in the estuary, a list of words relating to the history and the environment of the area and the long red bar near the base of the tapestry with “sparks” flying off it refers to the Llanwern Steelworks where I was lucky enough to be given a tour – I was truly amazed at the place.

I was not doing field recording at the time of that artist’s residency and so I do not have any of the sounds of the place, but it would probably not be appropriate for me to include them in my Bath Walk Soundscape below.

Great Pulteney Street fro the Holburne Museum

Bath Canal

Railway cutting through Sidney Gardens, Bath

Henrietta Park

aged hawthorn tree – monochrome

aged hawthorn – colour

Garden of Remembrance pool

Lillies

Garden of Remembrance

Autumn leaves

down to the river

Pulteney Bridge

mask and reflections

Shapely weir on the River Avon

Pulteney Bridge

heavily textured building

Roman bath house

My commissioned tapestry for Caldicot Library

tapestry – detail