SPOTLIGHT News about Bath Abbey, Oasis Bath, and TV filming in the cita centre

The Baths held their own among some formidable competition

VisitEngland Awards

MEDAL OF HONOUR Bath’s tourist attractions had a great night at the VisitEngland Awards on 17 August. Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa, the Roman Baths & Pump Room and the Herschel Museum of Astronomy all ended the night with silver awards in their respective categories – large hotel for Lucknam, large visitor attraction for The Roman & Pump Room Baths and small attraction for the Herschel Museum. It was a particularly exciting night for the Baths, which was the only attraction in their category outside of London and nominated alongside the Old Royal Naval College and Warner Brothers Studios: The Making of Harry Potter. For more: www.visitbritain.org

Bath Festivals CAST A SPELL ON YOU

“Reading is magic and magic is for everyone,” says UK Waterstone’s Laureate Cressida Cowell. The fairy godmothers at Bath Festivals took her words to heart, joining forces with book festivals around the globe to whip up the Reading is Magic Festival. An allstar line-up of authors and illustrators are on board for six days of free digital events for schools and families from 27 September to 2 October.

Seeing all Bath’s summer events cancelled or postponed was hard, but the loss of this year’s Bath Children’s Literature Festival – and the inspiring authors and illustrators it brings to engage the children of Bath – was a particular blow to the soul. But nothing, not even a pandemic, can keep Bath’s bookish heart down for long, and this inclusive event promoting creativity and shared experiences with big name authors like Chris Riddell, Dapo Adeola, Nathan Byron, Robin Stevens and Jasbinder Bilan (more from her on page 82) among many others will ensure local children don’t have to go an entire year without seeing their literary favourites ‘live’. For more: www.readingismagicfestival.com

CLOCKWISE: Nathan Byron; Sharna Jackson; Cressida Cowell

Lockdown hit the Abbey hard

Bath Abbey

A HELPING HAND Bath Abbey has received a £155,800 boost from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Closed for 15 weeks in adherence with Covid-19 guidelines, the team at the Abbey reckon they lost out on close to 150,000 visitors – not to mention all the missed events at Easter. Usually, this would be one of the busiest times of the year for the Abbey, but even now they can onla admit a signifi cantla reduced number of visitors evera day. The loss of income will have far-reaching consequences, but this much-needed cash injection will certainly help support the heritage and community work the Abbey does. For more: www.heritagefund.org.uk

Film cameras will return to Bath this month along with Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins

McDonald & Dodds

THE SECOND ACT *ath¼s new favourite detectives are set to return for a second series. I<>¼s McDonald & Dodds is coming back for three more episodes, with Tala Gouveia and Jason Watkins reprising their roles as the odd couple detective duo. According to a Tweet from Watkins, we can expect to once more see camera crews descend on the city in ;eptember as filming starts. For more: www.itv.com

Charity

HELP IN THE STORM

Oasis Hub Bath has delivered more than 700 food parcels to local families in need since May. Supplied by food redistribution charity FareShare South West, the local church and community hub joined forces with Southdown Whiteway Church and Community Partnership, the Salvation Army and local volunteers to deliver the scheme, which serves families pushed into immediate hardship by the pandemic. )s the eٺects of +ovid! will be felt for many months yet, Oasis has expanded the service with the launch of a weekly food pantry, open to those with a household income of less than Š S who live or worS within a  minute walS of Oasis at Hayhill.

“The pantry will be based at Oasis Church Bath on The Paragon and will be open evera <hursdaa from pmº explains Jo Dolby, Hub Leader for Oasis in Bath. “Members will pay a small amount of money each week to choose their own items from our wellstocSed pantra. They pay a fraction of the normal cost and they’re also saving surplus food from heading to landfill.º For more: www.oasisbath.org

ITV ©

Oasis volunteers are masked up and ready to go See you IRL soon

Bath boules

BOULESAID RAISES £22K Nothing stops Bath Boules. Temporarily thwarted by the pandemic, the Boules ran as a virtual event: BoulesAid – and raised just over £22,000 through generous donations and sponsorships.

First funds have been dispersed by the Bath Boules trustees to local charities: RICE, School Kit Project, Bath Rugby Foundation, Bath Mind, Bath Ethnic Minority Senior Citizen’s Association, We Get It Together CIO, Julian House, Dorothy 0ouse 7ٺ the :ecord and ;outhside.

BoulesAid was a fun evening of comedy, music and a celebration of Bath. Russell Howard and Jon Richardson appeared along with other top comedians – all curated by Mark Olver of the Belly Laughs charity. Tributes to Bath and the Boules were paid by David Suchet, Kris Marshall, Dr Phil Hammond and the founders of the Bath Boules, JP Auge of the Beaujolais and Phillip Addis. Dozens more contributed.

“The trustees of the Bath Boules Charitable Trust want to thank the many generous sponsors and donors but in particular to recognise headline sponsor Brewin Dolphin for their tremendous and special support in such a diٻcult aear. <he proceeds are already helping local charities in this time of special need.º

Bath Boules returns to its natural home in Queen Square next summer, pandemic willing, on 2une . For more: www.bathboules.com

Big Boules sponsors were Novia, Savills, Truespeed, Archers Marquees, Great Western Wine and Bath Life.

Further funds were raised by: Bath Building Society, Blue Gecko, Carter Jonas, Citizens Advice B&NES, Datasharp Integrated Communications, Enlightened, The Francis Hotel, Groupia, McKenzie & Co Financial Consultants, Minuteman Press, Moore, Redwood Marketing, Rotork, Royds Withy King, Sparkloop, Synergy Construction & Property Consultants and Thrings.