Often attractions are billed as a trip back in time. Experience history! the brochures say. It usually doesn’t live up to the billing. Bath was different. It really was a trip back in history.

The Roman Baths are at the centre of Bath. They are built around a natural hot spring that feeds the baths with over a million litres a day of 46ºC water. When the Romans invaded Britain in 43AD, the local tribes treated the site a holy spot due to the rising hot waters.

To get from the street level, as it exists today, to the level the original baths were built on, requires one to descend some 15 meters. There is a very real sense that you are descending into the past. Looking up from the main central bathing pool it is possible to see some of the Georgian buildings that characterise Bath and the Abbey.

The section of the supporting arch of the roof that was found during the excavation is amazing. It is made of tile and mortar and demonstrates the vast arch of the roof line. The roof was made of hollow tile to be light and insulating. The roof soared the equivalent of five stories over the main bathing pool.

One of the most amazing things about the baths is the level of technology. The floors were heated to make a sauna-type room that was so hot that metal-studded sandals were required. The lead lining of the main bath is intact and holds water perfectly. Even today, the baths are in a condition that I could clearly picture what they must have looked like when they were in operation. Full of people bathing, socializing and being massaged and scraped with a strigil.

Our next stop, after a traditional lunch of Pie n’ Mash with craft-brewed ale, it was off to the Bath Abbey. The Abbey has been the site of a place of worship for at least 1400 years. The first king of England was crowned there in 973. The Abbey that is there now was founded in 1499 and completed in 1611. It was restored in the 1860’s. And again after it was bombed in 1942.

The abbey has no fewer than 86 windows. We were there on a day that was a little overcast. Even with limited sun, the interior was bright and airy. It has an absolutely gorgeous fan-vaulted ceiling that soars overhead. The interior is of light stone that adds to the open feeling. Standing in the main aisle gave me pause. It is a beautiful space that is awe inspiring. I contrast it with other of the old churches like Notre Dame that by comparison seem dim on the inside.

On leaving the Abbey, we walked away from the centre of Bath to an Irish pub called O’Neill’s. One of the things we have discovered in England is Rugby. Football has not caught our attention. But Rugby, that’s for real men. The 6 Nations Rugby tournament is on now and it was England v. Ireland. Suffice it to say, the crowd was cheering the Irish side. At the end, the home side went down to defeat, to the delight of the crowd present. It turns out that a Rugby game lasts exactly four pints of Carling or three Magner’s ciders.

Sunday morning arrived sunnier than Saturday had been. We checked out of our B&B after a breakfast of Styrofoam muffins and twig-and-gravel cereal and headed to the Museum of Bath at Work. The point of the museum, as presented by the staff member behind the desk, was to show a contrasting side of Bath. It has been a resort town for two millennia, since Roman times. The museum shows Bath as a city of other types of industry.

The curators of the museum were able to clean out a factory belonging to J.B. Blower. It had stood in Bath from The early 1800’s until 1969, making brass and cast iron supplies, fizzy drinks and a slaughter house. Strange bedfellows to be certain. They cleaned out the factory and laid it out in the museum exactly as they found it. Complete with all the tools, equipment, machines and junk left lying around. Recreated exactly as it was when it was in use.

As much as the Roman Baths, this was a trip back in time. All of the old belt driven lathes, milling machines and drilling tools. This was an insight into working in from a bygone era. The museum has half a million documents including unopened junk mail from the Victorian era. I could imagine people working in the office, laid out exactly as it had been with a gas lamp over the large partner desk and stick of wax for sealing documents.

The museum also has on display one of the few remaining examples of the Horstmann sports car. Built after the turn of the last century, it is a lovingly restored example of early motoring. The car was designed and built in Bath and produced an eye-watering 8.6 horsepower.

After a traditional lunch of Pie n’ Mash, we joined a free walk put on daily by the local council. The walk took us around Bath, highlighting the Georgian architecture. Many of the buildings in the old section of Bath was built in the 1700’s and early 1800’s. These show a departure from the random, unplanned Elizabethan buildings. Georgian buildings are planned, symmetrical, and feature columns surmounted by triangular pelmets.

The walk took us by both ordinary residences and grand rows of townhouses, all in the Georgian style. The townhouses were built in large, sweeping crescents. The facades were built to be identical and remain so to this day. Houses on the Bath Circus, laid out in three curving rows forming a circle the same diameter as Stonehenge, command £4 million.

The guide was a volunteer and had lived in Bath for most of his life. He had an extensive knowledge of the city and the two hour walk took us to areas that we would not have seen had we just stumbled around by ourselves.

All to soon, we were back on the train, headed back to Paddington Station. Bath is a beautiful city and steeped in history. It was a pleasant surprise to find a place so close to home that was so far back in history.