Cross Bath
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Here in the city of Bath, famous for it's spas (as part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site - Spa Towns of Europe), stands a historical building called the Cross Bath.
From the Wikipedia:
The name Cross Bath is believed to commemorate the body of St Aldhelm resting there on its journey from Doulting to Malmesbury Abbey in 709.
The healing powers of the bath were one of the reasons for the foundation of St John's Hospital, Bath around 1180, by Bishop Reginald Fitz Jocelin, which is among the oldest almshouses in England.
In the 16th to 18th centuries the baths were frequently visited by royalty, increasing their popularity. In June 1688, Mary of Modena, wife of King James II, gave birth to a son, Prince James nine months after bathing in the Cross Bath. The Melfort Cross, was erected in 1688 to celebrate the birth.
From Historic England:
A bath stood here in medieval times, first described by Leland in 1540. It took its name from the cross that stood in the centre, a later version of which was erected in 1687 by Lord Melfort in honour of Mary of Modena, the Catholic wife of James II, and executed by Thomas Davis of London; it was altered after the 1745 uprising and finally dismantled. Baldwin as City Architect rebuilt it in 1783-84. Fitted within an almost triangular site constrained by narrow medieval lanes, it had a narrow apex to the S and a remarkably Baroque N facade, with a central bow, but with charming Adamish detail. Behind this was an oval pump room. The bath itself to the S was oblong, bowed to the E and W sides. When Bath Street cut through the irregular medieval city fabric Baldwin's building was a misfit with a blank façade skewed to the splendid E-W axis. In 1798 Palmer, having replaced Baldwin as City Architect in 1792, took down his building, except for the W wall and bath. Using the existing stone and precisely to the same plan, he reconstructed Baldwin's serpentine N façade to face E towards Bath Street. He rebuilt the N elevation to his own design with straight side parts canted back towards the middle where a segmental projection with a portico of four Corinthian columns forms the main accent. Inside, Palmer rebuilt the dressing rooms and pump room. Unable to compete with the enlarged Hot Bath and Tepid Bath, George Phillips Manners in 1829-30 converted Baldwin's oval pump room to provide vestibule and dressing rooms with reclining baths and infilled the colonnaded portico to increase the floor area. Manners + Gill carried out a still more drastic conversion in 1854, lengthening the bath by two feet, providing thirteen private dressing rooms and removing Manners' earlier conversion and the remainder of the original internal structure. Charles Edward Davis oversaw drastic modifications to the building in 1885-8, by considerably enlarging the bath to become a rectangular swimming pool and roofing it over. The roof was removed in 1952. All that remains of Baldwin's interior is an elegant relief carving of a vase and one paterae.
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.