Museum of Bath at Work

51°23′18″N 2°21′45″W / 51.3882°N 2.3625°W / 51.3882; -2.3625DirectorStuart BurroughsWebsitewww.bath-at-work.org.uk

The Museum of Bath at Work is a local history museum in Bath, Somerset, England.

The museum was established in 1978 as the Bath Industrial Heritage Trust. Its original collection consisted of a reconstruction of the nineteenth century engineering and mineral water business of Jonathan Burdett Bowler, founded in 1872.^[1] When the Bowler firm closed in 1969 its contents were bought by a local businessman with the express intention of founding a museum.^[2] Photographs taken of the original business were used to carefully reconstruct the shop, workshops, offices and bottling plant.^[3]^[4] Over 10,000 bottles and many thousands of documents were also saved.

Today, the museum seeks to present the commercial development of Bath over a 2000-year period. In addition to the Bowler collection, other reconstructions include a cabinet maker's workshop and a Bath stone quarry face complete with crane and tools. In 1999 a rare 1914 Horstmann car was acquired, and, in 2003, a comprehensive exhibition on Bath's development, 'Bath at Work: 2000 Years of Earning a Living' opened. A local history display in the Hudson Gallery opened in 2007 and features an ever-changing display of photographs. In 2007 the museum acquired a rare Griffin six-stroke gas engine, that had been in storage in Yeovil, Somerset, after having been moved from London in 2001.^[5] It was built in 1885 and for some years was in the Birmingham Museum of Science and Technology.^[6] It is one of only two known examples, the other being in the Anson Engine Museum.

The museum is housed in the Camden Works building, constructed in 1777 as a court for the indoor game of real tennis.^[7]

References

^ Andrews, Ken (1998). Mr Bowler of Bath. Bristol. pp. 10, 19. ISBN 0-9534201-0-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ Andrews. Bowler. p. 10.
^ "Museum of Bath at Work". 24-hour museum. Retrieved 28 October 2007.
^ Andrews. Bowler. pp. 10, 63–80.
^ "Only surviving Griffin engine returns home to Bath museum". Culture24.org.uk. 15 April 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
^ Edgington, David, ed. (May 1980). "Stationary Engines at the Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry". The Stationary Engine (75). Internal Fire – Museum of Power: 5.
^ Andrews. Bowler. p. 10.