Highlights of 2023
Happy New Year and welcome back to Footprints!
In this our first episode of 2024, we look back at our highlights from 2023. More than 40 people took part in the shows last year and a huge thanks must go to them for making the episodes so fascinating and varied to listen to. They and the organisations they represent are at the very heart of the Bathscape and we will hear from many more in 2024.
Clips
Ep 13 February - Living Working Bath: Mark Batterham shows us around the Moorlands Estate, the first council estate planned after the second world war and opened by Nye Bevin.
Ep 14 March - Art in the Landscape: Marian Hill talks about her exquisitely intricate and accurate identification charts of bugs, beetles and butterflies, using collage.
Ep 15 April - Wellbeing in Nature: Lucy Bartlett leads a walk for students as part of Be Well week and three students talk about why being outdoors helps their mental health.
Ep 16 May - The Call of the Wild: One of the wildlife enthusiasts featured in the episode Catherine Turner talks about her passion for spiders and has me peering deep into the long grass .
Ep 17 June - The Love of Trees: Joe McSorley, lead ranger for the National Trust shows us around Prior Park Gardens and tells us why the gardens were created and what the trees were used for.
Ep 18 July - Haile Selassie in Bath: Ras Benji allows us to tag along on a tour of Fairfield House where Emperor Haili Selassie lived during his time in exile during WW2.
Ep 18 July - Haile Selassie in Bath: Pauline Swaby-Wallace shows around the Windrush Centre and describes what it was like to come to Britain at that time.
Ep 19 August - What did the Romans ever do for Bath?: Combe Down resident Helen talks about the time she found a skeleton of a roman citizen buried in her garden wall!
Ep 20 September - Farming in Bath: Bob Honey has a pedigree herd of Herefords, but he also has a cider apple orchard. This is a clip of him describing the year in the life of an apple. You will hear glorious names of apple varieties such as Slack-ma-Girdle!
Ep 21 October - Radical Bath: In this clip, Professor emerita June Hannam talks about why Bath was important to the Suffragettes and tree planting at Eagle House.
Ep 21 October - Radical Bath: the episode brings us right into the present with Kidical Mass campaigners talking about their mission to create safer streets for children to cycle in.
Ep 22 November - Bath at Night: We visit the West of England Falconry Centre in Newton St Loe and hear about Bella the rock owl during one of their flying displays.
Ep 23 December - Three Grand Schemes: This episodes hears about Bath Preservation Trust's renovations to Beckford's Tower, one of the National Trust's Green Corridor schemes at Bathampton Meadows and the recently-opened Cleveland Pools. In this clip three inspiring women talk about their experience of swimming in temperatures of around 10 degrees!
Our thanks to all our contributors throughout 2023
Stuart Burroughs, director, Museum of Bath at Work
Diana Ahmed, Twerton artist
Mark Batterham, local historian
Jessica Palmer, Bath artist
Perry Harris, Bath artist, watercolourist and cartoonist
Marian Hill, Bath illustrator
Chris Pound, architect, writer and World Heritage expert
George Cook, project officer, Avon Wildlife Trust
Mike WIlliams, Bath naturalist, specialist in beetles
Catherine Turner, Bath naturalist, specialist in spiders
Alan Rayner, Bath naturalist, specialist in mosses, lichens and liverworts
Helen Hobbs, organiser, Chalcombe Toad Patrol
Karen Renshaw, ecologist, Bath and North East Somerset Council
Dr Penny Hay, co-founder, Forest of Imagination
Andrew Grant, co-founder, Forest of Imagination
Savita Wilmott, director, Festival of Nature
Joe McSorley, lead ranger, National Trust
Hugh Williams, tree specialist and walk leader
Princess Esther Sellassie Antonhin, great granddaughter of Haile Selassie
Ras Benji, manager, Fairfield House
Pauline Swaby-Wallace, director, BEMSCA (Bath Ethnic Minority Senior Citizens Association)
Bob Whitaker, archaeological adviser BACAS (Bath and Counties Archaeological Society)
Lindsey Braidley, director, Clore Learning Centre, Roman Baths
+Helen, Combe Down resident
Bob Honey, Bath farmer
Biddy, Bath farmer
Mark Smith, adviser FWAG (Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group)
Andrew Swift, local historian
Professor Emerita June Hannam, University of the West of England
Annie Beardsley, Bath Natural Theatre Company
Saskia Heijltjes, organiser, Kidical Mass
Naomi Johns, manager WOEF (West of England Falconry Centre)
Joe Middleton, manager, Herschel Museum
Sam Grief, manager, Cleveland Pools
Siobhan, Rachel, and Victoria, Cleveland Pools swimmers
Dr Amy Frost, curator, Bath Preservation Trust
Joanna Rolfe, project officer, National Trust
Credits
Music: Audionautix
Produced by Pommy Harmar
Links
Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk
