Bath's Industrial past and present
This month's episode explores Bath’s industrial past and the enormous changes in the landscape Bath has seen over the decades, since many of the factories have disappeared.
Bath’s architectural landscape is often only viewed as Georgian or Roman and we forget that it has had an illustrious industrial past.
We meet Peter Dunn, who from the age of 7 wanted to build cranes. He was taken on as an apprentice by Stothert and Pitt, Bath's 'Crane maker to the World', and he is responsible for restoring one of their oldest cranes, which now sits outside Newarks Works, where Stothert and Pitt used to be.
Following this, writer and local historian Paul Fisher talks about Bath's furniture manufacturing history and the modernist buildings which housed them. We start at Lidl and walk over to the Hermann Miller building on the city side of the river.
Finally we find out from Steve George what kinds of considerations are needed when deciding what can and should be built in this wonderful Unesco World Heritage city. Steve is Bath and North East Somerset Council's Principal Planner in the Planning Policy Department.
Credits
Music: Audionautix
Produced by Pommy Harmar
Links
'Oldest Stothert and Pitt crane set to be restored' - BBC online
Paul Fisher - Walks to Works 2, Smallish Publishing 2025
Bath and North East Somerset Council Planning Policy Department - www.bathnes.gov.uk/local-planning-policy-and-guidance
