This month we said goodbye to long-standing staff member, Julia Kennaby. Julia has been our Volunteer Coordinator and Support Officer since March 2019. Amongst many other things, she coordinated the CAN volunteer work and handled our social media. Julia recruited our volunteers and made sure we offered them and the wider community interesting and varied training.
As a team we’ve navigated a lot together, some things to be expected – setting up a new project from scratch and finding hundreds of new volunteers: for the CAN team; to produce our podcast; to carry out research and to lead our walks. And some of it not expected – global pandemic and flex to hybrid working – whilst juggling hectic family lives.
Julia has brought fun, positivity and pragmatism to our team. She has told us how much she enjoyed working with the volunteers and to pass on her thanks to them. We wish her all the best in her new role with Somerset Council.
Bathscape Walking Festival 2024Another September with some variable weather to complement our varied programme of walks! Thank you to all our walk leaders and helpers, and the hundreds of people who attended one of our walks, it really is the highlight of our year.
With the Festival we try and bring an alternative angle to the city, encouraging people to find different footpaths or learn something new about the local area. We’ve had some lovely comments and really productive feedback from walkers and leaders, and will implement as many suggestions as we can next year. We will let you know when the dates have been fixed for 2025. (cover photo at the top of the page, courtesy of Bath Ramblers)
Breaking the Dead Silence:
Engaging with legacies of Empire and Slave-Ownership in Bath and Bristol’s MemoryscapesOver the past few walking festivals, many of you have attended the ‘Walking Bath’s Uncomfortable Past’ walk. A new book, co-edited by one of the walk leaders has now been published, and there are a number of events to mark its launch.
The volume Breaking the Dead Silence: engaging with legacies of Empire and Slave-Ownership in Bath and Bristol’s Memoryscapes, edited by Christina Horvath and Richard White, was published in July 2024 with Liverpool University Press. It reflects on the aftermath of the toppling of Bristol’s Colston statue, the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the resulting debates over history, heritage and memory, four years after the events.
The book, available for free download, features critical commentaries from 19 authors including academics, artists, activists and heritage professionals, challenging the official heritage narrative of both cities.
Bath Urban Treescape – new trails launched
The Bath Urban Treescape team have launched six new urban tree trails to join the popular series of tree trails produced last year, taking the set to 10.
- Trail E: Rob’s Route, starts and ends in Bear Flat and connects Moorlands and Alexandra Parks. The route is based on a suggestion from the late Rob Randall, Bath naturalist.
- Trail F and F2: Alice’s Arboretum in Alice Park has two tree trails: a general interest trail and a ‘family friendly’ trail.
- Trail G: London Road Loops adds a trail on the east side of the city and joins two circuits, one around Snow Hill and the other visiting Kensington Meadows.
- Trail H and H2: Combe Park Canopy has two trails at the Royal United Hospital, one developed for the staff, patients and visitors looking for a purposeful walk and one – developed with the ReMind UK Centre – which is a short, dementia-friendly trail around the ReMind building, designed for beneficiaries of the centre.
Each trail has a selection of 20 or so significant trees. There is a website: bathurbantreescape.com, with digital and paper maps, showing the trees and information about them. The team have also installed 34 plaques throughout the City, to help identify the trees and to draw attention to the trees and the tree trails.
