Living in Bath I was very keen to use this beautiful city as a starting point for my pop-up cards. Bath is rich in history and an excellent place to learn about the Roman Empire and the different architectural influences in this region.
The present Bath Abbey was built on the the remains of earlier Saxon and Norman Churches in 1499 by the then Bishop of Bath 'Oliver King'.
Historians tell us that Oliver King had arrived in Bath and on seeing the neglected Norman church received a vision from God. A vision of heavenly angels. He took this to be a sign that related to both himself and the then King Henry V11 and concluded that it was an invitation to rebuild Bath Abbey.
Today we can see in the stone carvings on the west front of Bath Abbey an interpretation of Oliver King’s vision. The angels can be seen ascending and descending the ladders to heaven and the patron Saints of the Abbey Peter and Paul stand either side of the carved oak doors.
The Bath Abbey pop-up card is comprised of three main parts – the West Front, the Flying Buttresses and the Transept walls. All of these components stand on a paved courtyard which forms the base of our pop-up card. The illustrations form a realistc represenation of Bath Abbey.
When you visit Bath Abbey you will notice that the Abbey sits at one end of a courtyard with Churchyard shops and the Grand Pump Room running down eith er side. I have included these on the card because i think they contribute a lot of character to Bath Abbey and including them courtyard gave me the ideal opportunity two place characters of the Jane Austen Period!
A Brief History of Bath
Roman Bath 43AD
The Romans conquered the Celts and settled in Bath in about 43 AD and they commenced work on the Roman Baths in 65 AD. On the same site as the Roman Baths they constructed 'The Temple of Minerva'; Sulis Minerva was a Roman goddess of crafts and wisdom and this was a place where pilgrims came to worship her. In fact the Romans loved the area so much they stayed for the best part of four hundred years. Today, we still marvel at their engineering skills in the way they were able to control the flow of the hot spring water through the system of baths.
Georgian Bath 18th Century
During the early part of the 18th century Bath became the centre of social life outside London. The hot mineral water springs supplied a plentiful supply of water for the wealthy visitors to bathe in as a cure for their ailments. They also drank large quantities of the stuff for their physical well-being.
Bath became the place to be and within no time at all, there were plenty of centres for rich Georgian playboys to indulge in the craze of the day – gambling. Bath attracted characters like Richard ‘Beau’ Nash: The King of Bath, a gambler and a man of sharp wit. It also attracted the finest architects in the land, John Wood the Elder who set the style and layout of the city that we know today. His blueprint was to transform what had become a squalid Medieval city into one of Europe’s finest cities. His ideals were then followed up and brought to fruition by his son John Wood, and it is to them we must thank for our present heritage.
The Jane Austen Period 1775-1817
Jane Austen has strong associations with Bath and lived here from 1801 until 1806. She described the people and dress of her time in great detail.
Pack Contents
The pack consists of five sheets of high quality card with die-cut sections and a basecard. It also includes full instructions to construct the card and a detailed history of Bath Abbey. The size of the greetings card when folded together is 140x200mm it fits inside a Georgian-Blue C5 envelope.
