Bath History Festival 2026

The third annual Bath History Festival brings a whole day of fascinating talks to BRLSI. The event is a great opportunity to hear from experts in the heritage field, catch up with current projects and share thoughts with fellow history enthusiasts over lunch.

The festival, presented by BRLSI and supported by the History of Bath Research Group and the Bath Branch of the Historical Association, is a chance to find out more about history organisations from across the city.

Doors open at 9.15am, with welcome and introductions at 9.45am. A light sandwich lunch, tea & coffee are included in your ticket price.

Talks for the day include:

”So glorious was the show”: A short history of coronations

In 973 King Edgar was crowned in Bath Abbey. His was the first English coronation for which significant records survive. Although coronations have evolved and adapted in the more than 1,000 years since that historic occasion, many of the key ingredients of these ceremonies have remained the same. Historian and Curator Charles Farris will trace the origins of the coronation ceremony from the ancient past to the present day. Dr Farris is Public History Lead at Historic Royal Palaces. He is based at the Tower of London where he curated the new The Crown Jewels Exhibition, which opened in 2023.

The mystery of the mortuary chests: untangling a jumble of royal remains

Half a century after Edgar’s coronation the English throne was occupied by the Dane, King Cnut (1016–1035), and his Norman wife, Queen Emma. Tradition has long held that their remains were included among a jumble of bones thought to belong to early medieval bishops and royals, stored in mortuary chests above the high altar in Winchester Cathedral. The remains, dating from the 7th to 12th centuries, have been under investigation since 2012. Dr Heidi Dawson of Winchester University and Professor Kate Robson Brown of University College, Dublin, will discuss how they pieced some of these skeletons back together and the science that might help to uncover who they were.

Chew Valley Treasure: new light on Bath and Somerset at the time of the Norman Conquest

Three decades after Cnut’s death Harold Godwinson, Earl of Wessex, assumed the English throne in 1066, only to be fatally ousted nine months later by William the Conqueror. In 2019 a hoard of 2,584 coins from 1066–68 was discovered in Chew Valley, proving that Bath was minting silver pennies for King Harold during his brief reign.

Highlights of the hoard will go on show in Bath in January 2027 at the Roman Baths Museum before heading to their permanent home at The Museum of Somerset in Taunton*. Amal Khreisheh, Senior Curator, South West Heritage Trust, and Zofia Matyjaszkiewicz, Senior Curator, Roman Baths, discuss the hoard’s discovery, its significance and historical context, and what’s in store when it goes on show in Bath and beyond.

*South West Heritage Trust acquired the Chew Valley Hoard for Somerset Council museum collection under the Treasure Act 1996 thanks to £4.3 million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund, a £150,000 Art Fund grant and smaller but vital funding from South West Heritage Trust, Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society and the Friends of the Museum of Somerset.

Two kingdoms: masters of ceremonies who ruled in both Bath and Tunbridge Wells

Seven centuries after the Battle of Hastings, the clink of chainmail was replaced in Bath by the Georgian finery of the fashionable spa.  Oversize Bath personalities – the 18th century masters of ceremonies – behaved like royalty even when their rule was merely social. From Beau Nash’s time until 1801, Masters of Ceremonies split their rule between Bath and Tunbridge Wells.  While this certainly lined the MCs’ pockets, did this work out as well for the spas and the high society visitors these fascinating characters aimed to keep in line, asks Dr Rachael Johnson. She is a historian of Georgian England, with a particular interest in the social and medical history of spas and seaside resorts. Since 2023 she has been working at the University for the Creative Arts.

Macaronis: their quest for extreme elegance

Fashionable salons of the late 1700s were also transfixed by the appearance of extreme fashionistas known as Macaronis, targets of caricature. One Bath Master of Ceremonies, Captain William Wade was dubbed ‘the Bath Adonis’ and in the year he fell from grace was described as ‘the immaculate Captain Wade’. In Gainsborough’s full-length painting of Wade in the Victoria Art Gallery, called by some ‘the finest portrait in Bath,’ he wears a scarlet outfit that closely matches the Macaronis’ style of dress. Michael Rowe delves into the whacky world of the Macaronis and how they made a splash. Dr Rowe is Chair of the Friends of Victoria Art Gallery and of the History of Bath Research Group.

Please note the programme is subject to change. 

General admission: £40
BRLSI members/students: £24
Tickets include a sandwich lunch, tea and coffee

Image credits:

Chew Valley Hoard © British Museum / Mortuary Chest © Winchester Cathedral / Beau Nash courtesy of Bath and North East Somerset Council / The Coronation Procession of King James II, 1685 © Historic Royal Palaces