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CULTURE | TECHNOLOGY
Hidden history
Postgraduate students at Bath Spa University have collaborated with BRLSI to create a pioneering app, introducing new audiences to little known histories of Bath. From Darwin to the dinosaurs, Millie Bruce-Watt discovers more...
F
rom its healing waters and medieval heritage to its social scene and stunning architecture, Bath has been attracting visitors to its streets for millennia. The city’s history is not only well-documented in our museums and galleries, but its times of prosperity and moments of tribulation are also etched into Bath’s urban fabric. For residents, these fascinating details of times gone by are easily overlooked as the old has become flush with the new. In an attempt to change this, and introduce new audiences to these often unknown histories of Bath, a team of five postgraduate students and two tutors at Bath Spa University’s School of Design have collaborated with curators at Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) to design a revolutionary new app. Here is an introduction to BRLSI’s Bath Discovery Trail – an interactive walking app that takes you on a series of 90–120 minute tours around the world heritage sites, all while shining a light on the city’s hidden features and unlocking the largely unknown stories behind BRLSI’s incredible collections. The team have designed four trails to explore – The War Crosses, On the Origin of Species, The First Meteorite and The Railway Leviathan. Each trail places one of BRLSI’s 150,000 artefacts at the centre of its narrative. Whether it be relics of the Crimean War, Leonard Jenyns’ own copy of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, a 4.2 billion-year-old meteorite, or the skull of a Jurassic steneosaurus, the local stories unfold in 12 steps. Each step reveals a new chapter, a set of simple directions and a playful picture challenge for you to complete along the way. All the trails finish at BRLSI’s home in the heart of the city, and, most impressively, the artefacts will be on display for all to witness in wonder. “Did you know about the Jurassic creatures found here? Or that Bath was once considered the cradle of English geology?” read the opening lines on the app’s stylish homepage. My answer was an inquisitive no to all the above, and so, naturally, I was intrigued…
Hitting start On a warm summer’s day, I hit ‘start’ on Trail 2: On the Origin of Species. “Learn about one of the world’s most important scientific books through the lens of a very local friendship,” it read. “Charles Darwin spent his life gathering data based on his observations of animals and plants, which would lead to the development of the theory of evolution. This trail explores the lifelong friendship between Darwin and Leonard Jenyns, who lived here in Bath, through a correspondence that reveals a shared love for natural history and intellectual curiosity about the natural world.” The 4km walk started at Jenyns’ Memorial Seat at Riverside Park where I read the first chapter of the story and completed the first picture challenge – “take a selfie on Jenyns’ Memorial Seat.” Jenyns’ contribution to the intellectual life of Bath is now commemorated by this sculpture, created by Patrick Haines as a commission for Crest Nicholson as part of the new Elizabeth Park. I was interested to learn that Haines consulted with BRLSI while preparing his design where he imagined Jenyns and Darwin sharing a seat and a conversation. From there, the app guided me along the River Avon Walkway, where Darwin and Jenyns would have once spent many hours recording the wildlife, bonding over their discoveries. As I crossed over the river and re-joined the towpath at Churchill Bridge, the app revealed its true brilliance and drew my attention to dates carved into the stone wall. As it transpired, these were the dates of Bath’s great floods and, although this was an important chapter in Bath’s fairly recent history as the city was once plagued by deluges of biblical proportions, this fascinating feature would have been easily missed without the assistance of my smart pocket guide. The trail continued to lead me down the river, drip-feeding me facts about the HMS Beagle’s famous voyage, which, I was amazed to learn, was originally supposed to take Jenyns around the world before he suggested that Darwin take his place.
BRLSI’s Bath Discovery Trail takes you on a series of 90120 minute tours around the city’s world heritage sites
The brilliantly illustrated Trail 2: On the Origin of Species starts at Jenyns’ Memorial Seat at Riverside Park
78 TheBATHMagazine
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july 2021
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issue 221
