Abbey Churchyard

Wide Wednesday: History Lesson

This view will be familiar to anyone who has visited Bath - the Abbey glowing in the late evening sunshine enhancing the effect of the yellow Bath stone used for its construction.

The building hasn't always looked like this, nor has it always enjoyed such popularity.

The Abbey is certainly old, its origins go back to 675 AD (though the current building dates from 1499) .  For such a venerable building it has certainly had its ups and downs.  For a while following the Norman Conquest,  the Abbey enjoyed Cathedral status jointly with the Cathedral in Wells and in 1499 substantial building works took place which were finished 40 years later ... just in time for the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII.

The Abbey was stripped of its co-cathedral status and the church itself stripped of lead, iron and glass and left to decay. Bath Corporation eventually acquired it in 1560 and Henry's daughter Queen Elizabeth I promoted the restoration of the church and set up a national fund to achieve it.

Bath wasn't always the elegant place that the Jane Austen novels describe. At one time the alcoholic consumption of Bath Residents is reported to have been greater than the nearby port of Bristol... So a decent Parish Church was probably a good idea(!)

During the 1820s and 1830s buildings, including houses, shops and taverns which had been built very close to or in some cases were actually touching the walls of the Abbey were demolished and the flying buttresses were added.

More recently restoration has been undertaken to stabilise the building.  Surveyors were horrified to discover that the floor of the building was sinking.  On investigation it appeared that the ground under the abbey resembled Swiss cheese.  Further investigations revealed  that for centuries people have been buried beneath the floor of the Abbey.  The bodies decomposed resulting in huge gaps being created, making the floor unstable.  Work has been ongoing now for several years to stabilise the floor.