Introduction

Bath is a city in the South West of England. It  is a popular destination for tourists. Some visit for the Georgian architecture, or the mighty Bath Abbey. Hen parties walk the city centre on a daily basis. The Roman and Thermae Baths are famous across the world.

But wipe away this surface, and there is a lot more to this corner of the United Kingdom. Something that lies far below the foundations of the oldest buildings. Bath is home to the only natural hot springs in the United Kingdom, and millions of litres of steaming metal flavoured water bubbles up every day. Human beings have worshipped on this site for thousands of years.

Although the magical properties of the waters have had many theories posited about them, a ‘belief’ in something special here is a constant. When we first thought about creating a project about the city, our original plan was to put together a history of the spiritual nature of its water. We would have got interviews with local historians, tried to get behind the scenes access to various historical sites, and aimed to talk to someone willing to admit they still held a firm belief in the healing properties of the bubbling spa.

But everything changed after a discovery. According to some who inhabit the city, Bath is still in thrall to a goddess.

We discovered this on a pub trip a few months back. After chatting to a woman at the bar, she claimed her friend Andi was convinced she had once spoken to Sulis Minerva, the water goddess of Bath.We had heard rumours of sightings across Bath of Sulis Minveva. You can find accounts going back across hundreds of years. I asked the woman if she could put us in touch with Andi. 

A few days later, Andi emailed us a report of what happened. Her account is the ‘Pines Way’ entry in Wave One. At this stage it was a nice little addition to what we were working on. We discussed posting it as a little addendum on the finished site.  

Then we realised that compared to a lot of other myths and legends, the face of the goddess of the Baths is easily recognisable. One  of the most amazing archeological discoveries in the city, and indeed of the British Roman world, is a cast gold face of Sulis Minerva, chipped out of the sewers of the city. Type in a Google search for this picture, and you will discover her face within seconds. Following this  for a bit of fun we posted adverts in a local newspaper, and local Bath forums asking if anyone had a similar story. Asking people if they had any interaction with the person in the picture, or even if they had just seen her.

We popped a little image of Sulis Minerva, in almost ‘mug shot’ style, to jog a reader’s memory. We didn’t expect anything meaningful, or even anything at all. It was just a creative exercise to get the project going.  The amount of responses amazed us. When the responses referred to real places, real people, and began to correlate, we started to take notice. 

Our project changed forever. We have posted the responses with some of the people who got in touch with us, along with photos, and a map referencing where their story took place. This is alongside our own thoughts on the city of Bath, along with some more of the history that formed part of the research for our initial idea.

For full transparency, some of the emails received were a little scratchy. We have corrected spelling and grammar as necessary, edited them down where needed, and made the narrative flow a little easier in places.This may make you worry about the veracity of some of these posts. But let us assure you. All of our subjects insist their stories are true.   You will have to decide for yourself if the goddess is out there.

The Royal Crescent, Bath