The Cross Bath in Bath Street

Bath Street, Bath

Bath Street in Bath, Somerset, England was built by Thomas Baldwin in 1791. Several of the buildings have been esignated as Grade I listed buildings....

, Bath, Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, England is a historic pool for bathing. It was rebuilt, in the style of Robert Adam

Robert Adam

Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...

 by Thomas Baldwin

Thomas Baldwin (architect)

Thomas Baldwin was an English surveyor and architect in Bath.He did not originally hail from Bath but was first recorded in the city in 1774, where he was initially a clerk to plumber, glazier, and politician Thomas Warr Attwood. By 1775, he was appointed as the Bath City Architect after...

 around 1789. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.

Geology

The water which bubbles up from the ground at Bath, fell as rain on the nearby Mendip Hills

Mendip Hills

The Mendip Hills is a range of limestone hills to the south of Bristol and Bath in Somerset, England. Running east to west between Weston-super-Mare and Frome, the hills overlook the Somerset Levels to the south and the Avon Valley to the north...

. It percolates

Percolation

In physics, chemistry and materials science, percolation concerns the movement and filtering of fluids through porous materials...

 down through limestone aquifer

Aquifer

An aquifer is a wet underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well. The study of water flow in aquifers and the characterization of aquifers is called hydrogeology...

s to a depth of between 2700 metres (8,858.3 ft) and 4300 metres (14,107.6 ft) where geothermal energy raises the water temperature to between 64 °C (147.2 °F) and 96 °C (204.8 °F). Under pressure, the heated water rises to the surface along fissures and faults in the limestone. This process is similar to an artificial one known as Enhanced Geothermal System which also makes use of the high pressures and temperatures below the Earth's crust. Hot water at a temperature of 46 °C (114.8 °F) rises here at the rate of 1170000 litres (257,364 imp gal) every day, from a geological fault (the Pennyquick fault).

History

The warm water spring was possibly used before the nearby Roman Baths were developed.

The name is believed to commemorate the body of St Aldhelm resting there on its journey from Doulting

Doulting

Doulting is a village and civil parish east of Shepton Mallet, on the A361, in the Mendip district of Somerset, England.-History:The parish of Doulting was part of the Whitstone Hundred....

 to Malmesbury Abbey

Malmesbury Abbey

Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, was founded as a Benedictine monastery around 676 by the scholar-poet Aldhelm, a nephew of King Ine of Wessex. In 941 AD, King Athelstan was buried in the Abbey. By the 11th century it contained the second largest library in Europe and was...

 in 709.

The healing powers of the bath were one of the reasons for the foundation of St John's Hospital, Bath

St John's Hospital, Bath

St John's Hospital in Bath, Somerset, England, was founded around 1180, by Bishop Reginald Fitz Jocelin and is among the oldest almshouses in England...

 around 1180, by Bishop Reginald Fitz Jocelin

Reginald Fitz Jocelin

Reginald fitz Jocelin was a medieval Bishop of Bath and an Archbishop of Canterbury-elect in England. A member of an Anglo-Norman noble family, he was the son of a bishop, and was educated in Italy...

 and is among the oldest almshouse

Almshouse

Almshouses are charitable housing provided to enable people to live in a particular community...

s in England.

In the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries the baths were frequently visited by royalty, increasing their popularity. In June 1688, Mary of Modena

Mary of Modena

Mary of Modena was Queen consort of England, Scotland and Ireland as the second wife of King James II and VII. A devout Catholic, Mary became, in 1673, the second wife of James, Duke of York, who later succeeded his older brother Charles II as King James II...

, James II

James II of England

James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...

's wife, gave birth to a son, Prince James

James Francis Edward Stuart

James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales was the son of the deposed James II of England...

 nine months after bathing in the Cross Bath. The Melfort Cross, was erected in 1688 to celebrate the birth.

The bath was refurbished in the 1990s., by Donald Insall Associates. Access is now administered in conjunction with the adjacent Thermae Bath Spa

Thermae Bath Spa

Thermae Bath Spa is a combination of the historic spa and a contemporary building in the city of Bath, England, and re-opened in 2006. Bath and North East Somerset council own the buildings, and, as decreed in a Royal Charter of 1590, are the guardians of the spring waters, which are the only...

.