Brunel & The Coming of the Railway to Bath: An Akeman Press Walk

Andrew Swift and Kirsten Elliott are the founders of Akeman Press and the leading historians on the city of Bath.

Few people have had as great an impact on Bath as Isambard Kingdom Brunel. He changed the face of the city and brought the coaching trade - the bedrock of its prosperity for almost two centuries - to an abrupt end. Far from opening up the city to mass tourism, the arrival of the railway accelerated Bath's decline as a fashionable resort.

West of the city, in Twerton, the effects were even more devastating: the village was cut in two by a high viaduct, and its weaving industry was decimated by an influx of cheap material from the North of England. In the east of the city, Brunel drove his line through Sydney Gardens, transforming a refined retreat for the upper classes into the most scenic railway cutting in the country.

Now, the local experts and passionate walkers, Andrew Swift and Kirsten Elliott, will be taking us on walk which reveals what happened when the railway came to Bath. It's a story of a city that had been invaded by a army of 'navvies', drinking and fighting in shanty towns on the edge of the city, while armed Chartists massed in the streets and local elections descended into drunkenness and anarchy. It was against this turbulent background that Brunel brought the railway to Bath.

This is the story of how a great man changed the city forever...

Join us in the bookshop at 9:30am for coffee and cake before we head off on a walk at 10am. The walk will last approximately 2 hours and finish at the end with further refreshments at the bookshop.

Your entrance vouchers can be redeemed against any Akeman Press titles.