BACAS: Bath Abbey – the stories behind the stones

This talk is organised by Bath & Counties Archaeological Society (BACAS), with an admission charge of £4 for members, and £5 for the general public. Pay on the door. For more details please see the BACAS website here.

Bath Abbey has recently completed the “Footprint Project” – an ambitious £19.3-million undertaking, which began with the need to stabilise the sinking floor, though ultimately it included a lot more work as well. The floor was subsiding because of the number of burials underneath it in the course of nearly 300 years.

One of the principal reasons why the National Lottery Heritage Fund was willing to contribute about half the cost of the project was precisely because of that unique combination of over 1500 stones on the walls and on the floor, recording the names and some of the deeds of those who lived in Bath – or maybe only visited Bath and sadly, never left. Naturally and properly, the NLHF required the Abbey to do research into this treasure-trove of history, and a team of volunteers has been beavering away for half-a-decade to discover more about the people so commemorated.

As well as serving on the Project Board for the whole duration, Jeremy has been part of that team of researchers and has contributed to the results which are being made available on a new website launched earlier this year. He will tell you more about that, and about the new book that was published in August, but will chiefly share some of the more interesting tales that have been uncovered, putting some flesh on the bare bones of history.