Bath 250: A Virtual Conference to Mark The 250th Anniversary of the New Assembly Rooms at Bath – 29th & 30th September 2021
Streaming videos of all panels are now online for the next 2 wks, courtesy of @mbayliss90. They are:
Panel 3; Women’s Experiences of Bath; stream.liv.ac.uk/g8mhfnyv Speakers: @CoffeeBookGirl, @Smudge2492, Mark Philp
Panel 4; Sociability, Celebrity & Politics; stream.liv.ac.uk/2wx54v8c Speakers: @ehchalus, @GeorgianLords, James Peate, Michael McMullen
Panel 5; Performance; stream.liv.ac.uk/fddhsqk4 Speakers: Ann Hinchcliffe, Matthew Spring, @BreeRob_Kirk, Rhian Davies
Panel 6; Roundtable & Q&A Bath Assembly Rooms – The Next 250 years; stream.liv.ac.uk/23e8k8v8 Speakers: @OliverJWCox, @OlivetteOtele, Tom Boden, @RegionalHistory
Panel 7; Day 2 Welcome; Bath town; stream.liv.ac.uk/28nxdrnn Speakers: Kevin Grieves, Amy Frost
Panel 8; Bath and Beyond; stream.liv.ac.uk/phncw99k Speakers: @SophieVasset, Theophile Bonjour. @smellis_naylor, #twitterstorians
Remember: These streaming videos are available for two weeks from the date of this post: 10/8/2021.
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Thank you, Prof Elaine Chalus and the University of Liverpool for posting these links on our Jane Austen and Her Regency World Facebook Group and making the links available to our followers.
In Addition:
In reference to Bath, I also refer you to our recent post by Dr. Ben Wiebracht about his online high school’s class work and publication on Bath: An Adumbration in Rhyme by John Matthews.
Jane Austen's World 
That’s great! The parts I attended were very interesting. They haven’t sent me a notification of the videos yet, so thanks for sharing that, Vic. Much of the conference was far too early for those of us in the US, so it’s great to be able to access the recordings.
I think our readers will find panels three and four especially interesting (at least I did!). Panel two had interesting talks on chairmen and undertakers in Bath, and panel 5 a good segment about dance.
You can find links to the program and abstracts of the talks here, if you want to figure out which talks you want to listen to: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/history/events/bath250-conference/
Thanks for your input, Brenda. I was away when this conference was held, and so missed it.
Do you know if this conference will be available for a while? Because I’d like to do an hour here and an hour there.
And you already said, 2 weeks.
I’m watching the first video. There’s so much information that two weeks will just be enough to view the rest – here and there!
Thank you for the links.
d
Hope you have the time to enjoy them in full!
Just listened to the opening talk about Bath before the assembly rooms. I know all those locations but didn’t realise how they had developed. I had no idea Bath Rugby Club stadium is located on the site of Spring Gardens an important location for walking and taking breakfast.The breakfast sounds delicious, however on second thoughts,heart attack inducing!! Ha! Ha! Also the area at the east end of the Abbey, where the “Orangery ,”was located are streets now.By the way, Bath Rugby Club is one of the premier Rugby clubs. It provides a few players for the England team.
I had no idea, either, Tony. Then again, I spent only a few days in Bath, but did absorb as much as I could. I love the images, although they seem blurry.
Thank you so much for sharing! I can’t wait to absorb all the new information. :)
Over my early morning coffee and bowl of Kellogs Fruit and Fibre I thought I might listen to the second part of Panel 1. David Hughes (Independent Scholar): Assembly Rooms: Why not Queen
Square?
So why not Queen Square?Blimey!! David Hughes, after a few spluttering’s and false starts, an entertainment in itself, went into such a convoluted , detailed explanation about wills, legal documents, deaths and inheritances, Lords and laides and changes of names my mind went into a spin. I understood none of it!! Ha! Ha! But i was left with a fuzzy feeling of WOW that was impressive.. If any of you understand wills, legal terms and inheritance this one is definitely for you. I personally feel invigorated and confused for the rest of the day.OR is that just the fruit and fibre? I LOVED IT!!
Part 3 of Panel 1 over breakfast again. Toast and marmite this morning with my coffee by the way.
This was so good. Robert Goulding from the National Trust gives us a detailed explanation of the shareholders and subscribers who financed The New Assembly Rooms. He tells us about the various committees and what their various roles were and provides short biographies of the more active of the initial 70 shareholders. There was a lot of transferring of shares and when somebody died shares were transferred in wills. Wealthy widows, members of the aristocracy, plantation owners in the colonies , hence slave owners, apothecaries with businesses established in Bath itself, vicars and one lady beatified by the Catholic Church because she set up an Ursuline Convent somewhere John wood the architect of course and many others. It is really a great expose of the societal and economic networks both regional and national that were involved. And what is inspiring is that those on the committees all worked so hard . There was no dilly dallying about. Interestingly Jane Austen’s uncle, James Leigh Perrot whose house the Austen’s first stayed in when they moved to Bath was a non active shareholder. I think panel 1 is really good. I recommend it. I have followed it because my knowledge of how the assembly rooms developed was lacking. Its not now. Brilliant stuff!
Yes, I liked this one too. In fact, I hope I have the time to watch all the presentations in depth. I’m currently watching Panel 2, and am watching the third presentation on those coarse bath chairmen.
No more plans to watch any more of the panels at the moment. It was interesting yesterday to learn about the wide variety of (wealthy) society that bought shares in the financing of the New Assembly Rooms over 250 years ago. Many, as I discovered, were plantation owners in the Caribbean and also in Virginia. Here I am this morning, yes breakfast again, drinking a nice cup of PG TIPS tea. (A British tea product). Here is a statement by the PG Tips company.
“In May 2007, Unilever became the first company to commit to sourcing all its tea in a sustainable manner.To that end, the company asked the Rainforest Alliance, an international environmental NGO to start certifying tea estates in East Africa. Since April 2012, all of the tea used in PG Tips has been Rainforest Alliance certified.”
In February 2011, PG Tips stated it would stop testing its teas on animals.”
AND on the box of PG TIPS I have in my cupboard it reads,
” Our tea is farmed by workers earning a decent wage, with access to good quality housing,medical careand education for their children.”
Have a think about that. Slavery owners were financing The Assembly Rooms 250 years ago. And still now in the 21st century we are still campaigning and legislating and as above making promises against the continuing affects of slavery. That thought blows the mind. Slavery did not end and the affects have never ended it seems. Next time we all go to an Austen inspired ball it might be worth thinking about that. Bath, is not this pristine beautiful place we all imagine. Just look under the surface.