Bath Abbey Tower Tour

Bath Abbey stands at the heart of the city of Bath. It stands on the site of the original Anglo-Saxon Abbey Church, built in the 8th century, and the Norman Cathedral that replaced it around the 12th century. The present Abbey was finished in 1611 and is really quite beautiful.

I attended Palm Sunday service at the Abbey a few weeks back (obviously!). It was "A Dramatic Procession of Readings and Music"...very interesting and not at all what I anticipated...but a very cool experience! It involved a lot of movement...of the Bible, the Choir, the Clergy, the congregation...yes, at one point we all had to get up out of our seats and move to the East end of the church! It was a very unique and symbolic way to celebrate the beginning of Holy Week, and I'm glad I went.

My friend Julia, a pharmacy student at the University of Bath who will be coming to Ferris in the fall (not sure if I've mentioned her before?), leads tours of the Abbey Tower on weekends. We've been trying to get one of her tours since we met her, but it has never worked out...either we're out of town, or she's not working, or something else has come up. Finally, on Saturday, we got the Tower Tour...and we couldn't have picked a better day to do it! The sun was shining and it was just lovely.

The tour goes up a total of 212 steps arranged in 2 spiral staircases. At the top of the first staircase, we walked through the Bellringer's Chamber where we could see all the different methods and mechanisms for ringing the bells. There was a little room off of that where we got to go and sit right behind the clock face.

Halfway up the second staircase took us to the bells themselves. The Tenor Bell is the big one (3721 lbs of big) that rings on the hour and the Baby Bells are responsible for most of the other chimes.

We finished the climb and were rewarded with a spectacular view of the city in all 4 compass directions. So worth it, and we couldn't have picked a more glorious day!

Many thanks to our terrific tour guide...