Roman Temple | Mick's Muses's

September 2015

Posted on September 15, 2015 by Mick's Muses

We are currently about midway between Summer and Autumn as gradually the warmth from the sun becomes a little less each day, and increasingly chillier nights start to make their presence known. Living in an area where there are no gas supplies and with no prospect of ever having such luxuries, most county dwellers have to be like good boy scouts in terms of being prepared for winter. This entails having oil boilers serviced and oil tanks replenished. Unlike most urban areas where gas is readily available, many country folk are heavily reliant on oil for heating. It is not possible with oil to just turn the tap on demand in the event of a cold snap as oil has to be purchased, delivered and stored in advance. It also means that unlike gas where the price for the winter ahead is usually known in advance, the cost of oil can be unpredictable.

Domestic oil prices are subject to wild day to day fluctuations dependent on the world oil markets. Fortunately a combination of economic depression in China and the USA once again having oil surpluses due to increased shale oil production, the price of oil has been dropping like the proverbial stone.Oil users do have at least one silver lining over gas users in that there is never a worry about foreign countries having the power to turn of the UK’s supplies in the event of a international spat, as the UK’s gas now originates or passes through pipelines that we have no control over. I always though the UK’s policy of abandoning our own gas industry in favour of foreign supplies very unwise for this very reason.

During the Summer I had one of my Australian nephews and his partner staying with me for a few days. The were on a around-the-world holiday visiting the US, UK and Europe. One thing they had asked to see during their stay with us was the City of Bath some 35 miles from where I live. They had read so much about it in advance and for them it had become a must. They were particularly keen to see the Roman Baths something I had not seen before myself. On my previous visits to Bath, the Roman Baths had been closed due to on-going excavation and construction work. The closest we had been was in the delightful restaurant known as the Pump Room which has windows that overlook the Roman Pool. Whenever I had seen news items on the baths be it television of newspapers, they had always been set against the almost obligatory background of the pool itself.

I was pleasantly surprised during our visit to discover that not is there only the famous pool but also a large underground complex covering a Roman Temple and the spring that feeds the baths much of it still well preserved. The route through the complex is reminiscent to a slowly descending helter-skelter as the path slowly meanders around the top of the baths down through various rooms to the temple complex before eventually emerging by the pool itself. I could thoroughly recommend anyone who has not had the opportunity to make a visit to add it to their wish list.