Editing Bath, Somerset (section)

===Early modern===
[[File:Prospect of Bath in 1673.jpg|thumb|The South Prospect of Bath as depicted in Millerd's 1673 map of Bristol]]

By the 15th century, Bath's abbey church was dilapidated<ref>{{cite web |url=http://visitbath.co.uk/things-to-do/bath-abbey-p24001 |title=Bath Abbey |work=Visit Bath |access-date=2 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711142912/http://visitbath.co.uk/things-to-do/bath-abbey-p24001 |archive-date=11 July 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Oliver King]], Bishop of Bath and Wells, decided to rebuild it on a smaller scale in 1500. The new church was completed just a few years before Bath Priory was [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|dissolved]] in 1539 by [[Henry VIII]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mayorofbath.co.uk/renaissance-bath |title=Renaissance Bath |access-date=9 December 2007 |work=City of Bath |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114061225/http://www.mayorofbath.co.uk/renaissance-bath |archive-date=14 January 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> The abbey church became derelict before being restored as the city's [[parish church]] in the [[Elizabethan era]], when the city experienced a revival as a [[spa]]. The baths were improved and the city began to attract the aristocracy. A [[Royal charter]] granted by Queen [[Elizabeth I]] in 1590 confirmed [[City status in the United Kingdom|city status]].<ref name = "bath_insignia">{{cite web |url=http://www.mayorofbath.co.uk/civic-insignia |title=Civic Insignia |access-date=10 December 2007 |work=City of Bath |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120114051609/http://www.mayorofbath.co.uk/civic-insignia |archive-date=14 January 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> James Montagu, Bishop of Bath and Wells from 1608, spent considerable sums in restoring Bath Abbey and actively supported the Baths themselves, aware that the 'towne liveth wholly by them'. In 1613, perhaps at his behest, Queen Anne visited the town to take the waters: the Queen's Bath was named after her. The cue for the visit may have been the completion of the restoration work to Bath Abbey, the last instalment of which had been paid for two years previously.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stout |first=Adam |year=2020 |title=Glastonbury Holy Thorn: Story of a Legend |pages=28–29 |isbn=9781916268616 |publisher=Green & Pleasant Publishing }}</ref> [[Anne of Denmark and the spa at Bath|Anne of Denmark]] came to Bath in 1613 and 1615.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Emanuel |last=Green |title=The Visits to Bath of Two Queens |journal=Proceedings of the Bath Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club |volume=7 |year=1893 |page=224 }}</ref> By the beginning of the [[English Civil War]], the city was a first-class resort. However, it lost much of this trade in 1642; with the outbreak of war, fiddlers, "ladies who are there", and ale-house guides, lost their customers.<ref>History of England during the Reigns of the Royal House of Stuart. John Oldmixon, 1730 pp208-212, as quoted in: An unhappy civil war. The experiences of ordinary people in Gloucestershire, Somerset, and Wiltshire, 1642-1646. John Wroughton. Lansdown Press, Bath, 1999. Chapter 4, Forced to improvise. pp165-166</ref>

The city was initially garrisoned for [[Charles I of England|Charles I]]. Seven thousand pounds was spent on fortifications, but on the appearance of parliamentary forces the gates were thrown open and the city surrendered. It became a significant post for the Western Association army under [[William Waller]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=A tour through the whole island of Great Britain; Divided into Journeys. Interspersed with Useful Observations; Particularly Calculated for the Use of Those who are Desirous of Travelling over England & Scotland |first=Clement |last=Crutwell |pages=387–388 |volume=2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7n5HAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA387 |year=1801 |access-date=2 May 2015 }}</ref> Bath was retaken by the royalists in July 1643 following the [[Battle of Lansdowne]] and occupied for two years until 1645.<ref>{{cite book |title=Battles and Generals of the Civil Wars |last=Rodgers |first=Colonel Hugh Cuthbert Basset |year=1968 |publisher=Seeley Service & Co. |asin=B000HJ9TUG |page=81 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Wroughton |first=John |title=Stuart Bath: Life in the Forgotten City 1603–1714 |publisher=The Lansdown Press |year=2004 |pages=156, 158, 161–2, 174 }}</ref> The city was spared widespread destruction of property, overcrowding, bubonic plague, or starvation of its inhabitants, etc, unlike nearby Bristol and [[Gloucester]], and it had good water piped in from its surrounding hills. Still, soldiers who were billeted in private houses contributed to disorder and vandalism, though this never caused the general destruction and plundering seen in [[Marlborough, Wiltshire|Marlborough]] and other towns. Bath remained a health resort, often for wounded soldiers, its markets continued open and well-regulated, and its shopkeepers and craftsmen continued busy.<ref>An unhappy civil war. The experiences of ordinary people in Gloucestershire, Somerset, and Wiltshire, 1642-1646. John Wroughton. Lansdown Press, Bath, 1999. Chapter 4, Forced to improvise. pp165-167</ref> Nevertheless, council spending, rents and grants all decreased and the finances of the Bath City Council were seriously affected.<ref name=":1" /> 

Normality to the city quickly recovered after the war when the city council achieved a healthy budget surplus.<ref name=":1" /> [[Thomas Guidott]], a student of chemistry and medicine at [[Wadham College, Oxford]], set up a practice in the city in 1668. He was interested in the curative properties of the waters, and he wrote ''A discourse of Bathe, and the hot waters there. Also, Some Enquiries into the Nature of the water'' in 1676. It brought the health-giving properties of the hot mineral waters to the attention of the country, and the aristocracy arrived to partake in them.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Burns |first=D. Thorburn |title=Thomas Guidott (1638–1705): Physician and Chymist, contributor to the analysis of mineral waters |journal=Analytical Proceedings |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=2–6 |doi=10.1039/AP9811800002 |year=1981 }}</ref>
[[File:BathRoyalCrescentAirial morecontrast.jpg|thumb|left|alt=Aerial photograph of semicircular terrace of stone buildings with large expanse of grass in front and to the left. Also shows surrounding terraces of buildings.|[[Royal Crescent]] and Circus from the air (connected by link road, thus creating the famous "[[question mark]]" formation). Georgian taste favoured the regularity of Bath's streets and squares and the contrast with adjacent rural nature.]]

[[File:the.circus.bath.arp.jpg|thumb|alt=Semicircular terrace of 3-storey buildings with matching windows and roofs, stone bands run the length of the terrace.|right|[[The Circus, Bath|The Circus]]]]

Several areas of the city were developed in the [[House of Stuart|Stuart]] period, and more building took place during [[Georgian era|Georgian]] times in response to the increasing number of visitors who required accommodation.<ref>{{cite book |title=The English Spa, 1560–1815: A Social History |last=Hembury |first=Phylis May |year=1990 |publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-8386-3391-5 |pages=114–121 }}</ref> Architects [[John Wood the Elder]] and [[John Wood, the Younger|his son]] laid out the new quarters in streets and squares, the identical façades of which gave an impression of palatial scale and classical decorum.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bathmuseum.co.uk/biography.htm |title=John Wood and the Creation of Georgian Bath |work=Building of Bath Museum |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071113094712/http://www.bathmuseum.co.uk/biography.htm |archive-date=13 November 2007 |url-status=dead |access-date=2 May 2015 }}</ref> Much of the creamy gold [[Bath stone]], a type of [[limestone]] used for construction in the city, was obtained from the [[Combe Down and Bathampton Down Mines]] owned by [[Ralph Allen]] (1694–1764).<ref name="rabiog">{{cite web |url=http://www.bathpostalmuseum.co.uk/ralph-allen.html |title=Ralph Allen Biography |work=Bath Postal Museum |access-date=2 May 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004234025/http://www.bathpostalmuseum.co.uk/ralph-allen.html |archive-date=4 October 2013 }}</ref> Allen, to advertise the quality of his quarried limestone, commissioned the elder John Wood to build a country house on his [[Prior Park]] estate between the city and the mines.<ref name="rabiog"/> Allen was responsible for improving and expanding the postal service in western England, for which he held the contract for more than forty years.<ref name="rabiog"/> Although not fond of politics, Allen was a civic-minded man and a member of Bath Corporation for many years. He was elected mayor for a single term in 1742.<ref name="rabiog"/>

In the early 18th century, Bath acquired its first purpose-built theatre, the [[Old Orchard Street Theatre]]. It was rebuilt as the [[Theatre Royal, Bath|Theatre Royal]], along with the [[Grand Pump Room]] attached to the Roman Baths and [[Bath Assembly Rooms|assembly rooms]]. [[Master of ceremonies]] [[Beau Nash]], who presided over the city's social life from 1704 until his death in 1761, drew up a code of behaviour for public entertainments.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Imaginary Autocrat: Beau Nash and the invention of Bath |last=Eglin |first=John |year=2005 |publisher=Profile |isbn=978-1-86197-302-3 |page=7 }}</ref> Bath had become perhaps the most fashionable of the rapidly developing British spa towns, attracting many notable visitors such as the wealthy London bookseller [[Andrew Millar]] and his wife, who both made long visits.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.millar-project.ed.ac.uk/manuscripts/html_output/4.html |title=The manuscripts, Letter from Andrew Millar to Thomas Cadell, 16 July, 1765. Andrew Millar Project. University of Edinburgh. |website=millar-project.ed.ac.uk |access-date=3 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160115053142/http://www.millar-project.ed.ac.uk/manuscripts/html_output/4.html |archive-date=15 January 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1816, it was described as "a seat of amusement and dissipation", where "scenes of extravagance in this receptacle of the wealthy and the idle, the weak and designing" were habitual.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thorn |first=sir William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JEgVAAAAQAAJ |title=A memoir of major-general sir R.R. Gillespie [by W. Thorn.]. |date=1816 |language=en }}</ref>
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