The Royal Photographic Society rests on Milson Street in the downtown. The society is a museum of photographic history housing some 350,000 photographs including 550 works by the father of photography William Henry Fox Talbot. The museum is also home to 9,000 pieces of photographic equipment and 24,000 books, some as old as the early nineteenth century. Many of the treasures held within the walls of The Royal Photographic Society are priceless but some have been estimated at a value of 500,000 to one million dollars for a single artifact. I spent many an afternoon lunching outdoors at the little cafes in town. On one such occasion, after a lunch of spinach quiche and a coffee, I ventured out to the old abbey in Bath. The first thing I noticed about the abbey was a ladder of angels mounted on the western wall. It was carved into the stone and the figures seemed to rise to the heavens. The Bishop of Bath, Oliver King, it’s said, had a dream. He saw the angels ascending and descending in seamless transition from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven inspiring the beautiful design now written in stone. Thousands of people gaze upon the angels every day as they relive the bishops divine dream. The abbey is known as an historic and atmospheric place of worship and many are struck by the superb architecture. Upon entering through the large door frame, one’s gaze is directed upward toward the fan vaulted ceiling which is considered one of the finest in the country. The present abbey church is the last great medieval cathedral to have been built in England. Construction, which began around 1499, was finally completed in 1616 after nearly 120 years of back-breaking toil. The Abbey is the third church to occupy the site since 757AD and is the final resting place to nearly 8,000 of our ancestors, the earliest of which were laid to rest in 1569 and the most recent in 1845.
“I spent many an afternoon lunching outdoors at the little cafes in town. On one such occasion, after a lunch of spinach quiche and a coffee, I ventured out to the old abbey in Bath.”
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