The Bath Springs

The Bath Springs in Somerset are perhaps the longest venerated site in Britain. The three hot springs, which are unique in Britain, were the site of votive offerings since the springs were formed over 10,000 years ago, and their importance continued throughout the Neolithic period and the Iron Age until the Romans constructed their famous temple and baths which form a world heritage site today.

The Roman-built spring pool

The springs are found in a natural bowl between the steep hillsides surrounding Bath, enclosed in a meander of the River Avon. In prehistory, the ground was marshy with several braids of the river flowing through it. The springwater is a constant 42ºC which would have shrouded the entire area with steam and fog, especially in winter, adding to the magic and liminality of the site. The bitter and sulphurous water has long been associated with healing, and indeed Bladud, the legendary founder of Bath, was said to have discovered the springs after seeing his pigs use the water to cure themselves of skin complaints and subsequently healing himself of leprosy.

Model of the Roman buildings

The King’s Bath Spring, around which the Romans built their temple, is the largest of the three hot springs, and 300,000 gallons of hot water surges from it daily. The Hot Spring and Cross Bath Spring are smaller but were both venerated from prehistory to the Roman period. The Hot Spring is a spa today.

Throughout the Mesolithic period, which dates from 10,000BC-4000BC, worked flint blades and scrapers from many parts of Britain, fossils, hazelnuts, pyrites and probably myriad other organic items which have not survived were deposited in the spring pipes. During the Iron Age, a causeway was built and coins became the favoured offering. Around 70AD, the Romans began three centuries of increasingly elaborate building work.

Some of the Roman votive offerings

The spring was now enclosed into a reservoir which fed into the famous Great Bath, one of the wonders of Britain and the Roman world, an elaborate feat of engineering with a 20-metre vaulted ceiling. A series of smaller baths were used for various health and spa therapies. Windows opened onto the spring pool so the visitors could make their votive offerings. These now included pieces of armour or weapons, bronze and pewter domestic items, horse harness, gems and jewellery, as well as curse tablets invoking divine retribution for thefts or slights.

The temple pediment, showing the male Sul.

A sacrificial altar was built directly north of the spring, in a vast precinct which faced the temple where few people but priests could enter. Bath was sacred to the Celtic deity Sulis or Sul, who was linked to the sun and was equated by the Romans to Minerva, whose bronze and flame-shrouded statue was constantly tended within the temple sanctum. The image of Sul, created by Celtic craftspeople, was displayed on the temple pediment and shows a distinctly masculine face, often erroneously described as a gorgon. The writhing hair and moustache probably represents the sun’s rays. It is unusual, but not impossible, that the Romans associated the site with a female deity of their own. Perhaps they saw water as a distinctly feminine entity which would emasculate their male gods. Interestingly, during rebuilding work two centuries later, new facades showing the Roman Luna and Sol, the sun and the moon, were added to the temple. 

 The bronze head of Minerva, whose statue was tended in the temple.

The Roman sacred site which attracted visitors and pilgrims from across Europe began to decline in the fourth century. The low-lying site was now subject to regular flooding which eventually choked the Roman hypocausts with mud and sand and the baths fell into disuse. Eventually the buildings collapsed or were deliberately destroyed by Christian marauders, and eventually the area reverted to marsh as it had once been, with the exception of pillars of Roman masonry jutting incongruously from the swamp. The springs continued to be venerated for healing purposes into modern history but it was over a thousand years before the true sanctity and history of the site was again discovered.

The altar which was toppled and smashed after the site was abandoned