Batheaston is a village and civil parish east of Bath, England (which is believed to be where the name derived from), on the north bank of the River Avon.

History

Batheaston was named Estone in the Domesday Book.

In the 16th century the lord of the manor was John Hussey, 1st Baron Hussey of Sleaford.^[1]

In the eighteenth century, Sir John Riggs Miller, 1st Baronet and Anna Miller held a much-mocked fortnightly literary salon along with competitions and prizes at their house in the village. The couple there held a fortnightly literary salon along with competitions and prizes. Distinguished contributions were received from the like of David Garrick, Christopher Anstey and the poet Anna Seward.

Geography

The village is overlooked by Solsbury Hill which is within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and was was an Iron Age hill fort occupied between 300 BC and 100 BC. It is also linked to Bathampton on the south bank of the river via a toll bridge, and also borders Bathford.

The Bybrook River which springs up near Marshfield in Gloucestershire, flows through villages such as Castle Combe and Box in Wiltshire before finally merging with the River Avon in Batheaston.

Transport

The £45 million A46 dual-carriageway Batheaston/Swainswick bypass opened in summer 1996. It joins the main A4 road which used to follow the Fosse Way which runs through the village. It is also on the route of the Limestone Link a long-distance footpath from the Mendip Hills in Somerset to Cold Aston in the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire.

Religious sites

The parish church of Batheaston is St John the Baptist with St Catherine. It was built in the 12th century, and remodelled in the late 15th century. The west tower which has four stages with a pierced embattled parapet, setback buttresses, projecting octagonal stairs, and a turret at the south-east corner which terminates in spirelet, was rebuilt in 1834 by John Pinch, the Younger of Bath. It has pointed perpendicular two-light windows with cusped heads and the east side has a canopied niche containing a figure, probably St John.^[2]

Landmarks

The Riverside studios in Batheaston have been used by several musicians t record their albums including; Mighty ReArranger by Robert Plant.

Batheaston House was built in 1712 for Henry Walters (1667-1753) a wealthy clothiers who succeeded to the property of Batheaston through his grandfather, Henry Blanchard.^[3]

Pine House dates from 1672 having been built for Richard and Mary Panton. It was extended to the north in early 18th century.^[4]

Eagle House was built in the late 17th/early 18th century and then remodelled in 1724 and again in 1729 by John Wood, the Elder as his own house. The house has also been an important refuge for suffragettes who had been released from prison after hunger strikes, with trees being planeted to commemorate each woman - at least 47 trees were planted between April 1909 and July 1911, including Emmeline Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst, Charlotte Despard, Millicent Fawcett, Lady Lytton.^[5]

Notable people

• John Josias Conybeare (1779 – 1824), became vicar of Batheaston, and was Professor of Anglo-Saxon (1808-1812), and afterwards Professor of Poetry (1812-1821), at Oxford. He published a translation of Beowulf in English and Latin verse (1814).
• Edmund Fallowfield Longrigg, (usually known as "Bunty"), (1906-1974), played cricket for Somerset and Cambridge University.
• William Lonsdale (1794–1871), geologist and palaeontologist.
• Oswald Stevens Nock (1904?1994), (usually known as O.S. Nock), railway author and signal engineer.
• John Wood, the Younger (1728-1782), architect.

References

External links

• GENUKI - Batheaston
• Batheaston Historic Buildings Survey

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