Bath's Royal Wedding Celebrations

14th February 2011

With the Royal Wedding fast approaching, Bath Tourism Plus is highlighting the city as a wonderful place to visit if coming to the UK to celebrate the big day.  Bath’s Royal connections date back to the city’s very beginning and today there are a host of interesting highlights for Royalty enthusiasts to explore, fascinating stories to uncover and a number of special Royal Wedding events and celebrations to take part in.

Royal Events
A free event for all the family to enjoy will be held on 29 April in Royal Victoria Park.  The Royal Wedding Picnic will feature the Bootleg Beatles with a backing orchestra as well as local bands and activities for children, and the ceremony itself will be shown on a big screen.

The Fashion Museum will be hosting the Royal Wedding Dress Teas on 15, 29 March and 12 April, where visitors can enjoy tea and cakes in the Assembly Rooms whilst listening to illustrated talks on Royal Wedding Dress by museum manager Rosemary Harden.  Tickets also include entry to the ‘What Will She Wear?’ exhibition, which begins on 14 February 2011 at the Fashion Museum.  Some of the finest wedding dresses from the museum’s collection will be on display, as well as a previously unseen archive of photographs of couture wedding dresses from the 1930s. 

At No. 1 Royal Crescent, visitors are invited to enjoy a Georgian Wedding Feast between 16 April and 2 May.  To celebrate the Royal Wedding season, No.1 will be taking a closer look at weddings and marriage customs in the 18th century with a special wedding trail.  The elegant Drawing Room will be decorated for a Georgian wedding breakfast, with sugar paste decorations, sumptuous cakes and beautiful swags and there will be a beautiful Georgian wedding dress and posy on display in the bedroom. 

Ston Easton Park Hotel will be hosting a Royal Wedding Celebration on Friday 29th April where guests will be invited to get into the champagne mood from 10.30 am, with coffee and a brunch buffet being served in the beautiful surroundings of this luxury country house.

Stay and Celebrate
Fosse Farmhouse, situated a few miles from Bath, will be hosting a Royal Garden Party for all staying guests, including homemade Royal Wedding Cake and Earl Grey tea served in the beautiful grounds.  Bed and breakfast prices start from £99.00 per night, inclusive of wedding cake and tea.  Alternatively, visitors can enjoy a stay in the 18th century Stables Cottage, located in the grounds of Fosse Farmhouse.  The building was originally used for stabling the horses ridden in the Beaufort Hunt, which Prince William and Prince Harry are members of today.  The Stables Cottage is £660.00 for three nights self catering and sleeps up to six people.

A Bed Fit for a King
Why not stay in a royal property while in Bath?  The Duchy is a central Townhouse, recently owned by Prince Charles, and is now available as visitor accommodation. It even features the Prince's 'feathers' carved in beautiful Bath stone as a listed monument above the front door. Alternatively, Queen Charlotte’s Orangery is a splendid bed and breakfast, where you can step back in time and stay where Queen Charlotte (George III’s Queen) stayed during her visit to Bath in 1817.  Or why not sleep in the same room that Queen Victoria inhabited during her stay in Bath, at the Royal Hotel?  Visitors to Bath can even stay in same room as the Duke of York, Frederick Augustus, immortalised in the nursery rhyme ‘The Grand Old Duke of York’, who stayed at number 16 The Royal Crescent a number of times in the early 19th century.  This house is now part of the five star Royal Crescent Hotel, where you can stay in a suite named in his honour – accommodation fit for any prince or princess!

Shop like Royalty
In Bath you can even shop like a Royal at the new Highgrove shop on Milsom Street!  The shop sells an exclusive range of high quality, unique gift products for the home and garden as well as a range of organic foods.  All the products in the shop are inspired by the Highgrove garden and reflect many of HRH The Prince of Wales's interests at home and abroad.  For those wanting to pick up a souvenir of the Royal Wedding, a visit to Bath Tourist Information Centre is a must with a fantastic selection of products including postcards, mugs, spoons, bookmarks and books.

Bath’s Royal Beginnings
Bath was very much founded on Royal beginnings.  Legend has it that around 500BC a young Prince Bladud stumbled upon healing spring waters while exiled for being accursed with Leprosy.  The waters cured his affliction and he returned to his family, later becoming King.  In gratitude to the healing powers of the spring, King Bladud began the building of the city of Bath. 

A statue of King Bladud stands in the Royal Bath at the Roman Baths and you can see many paintings and illustrations depicting the story in the Pump Room.

The first King of England, King Edgar’s coronation was held in Bath Abbey in 973AD.  Today, you can see the stunning Edgar Window at the east end of the Abbey, which depicts the ceremony.  You can also see a commemorative stone in the Abbey’s floor, celebrating a visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1973 to mark 1000 years since the crowning of Edgar and the creation of the English Monarchy.

For more information on Bath’s Royal connections, special events and celebrations for the Royal Wedding see the Royal Wedding section of VisitBath.co.uk.

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Notes to Editors:  
For further information please contact Lucy Weaver at Bath Tourism Plus on 01225 477441 or email: lucy_weaver@bathtourism.co.uk or visit www.visitbath.co.uk, the official tourism website for Bath and the surrounding area.

Bath Tourism Plus
Working with the public and private sectors, Bath’s destination marketing organisation, Bath Tourism Plus, takes full responsibility for co-ordinating the work of a busy tourist information centre, the marketing of Bath and the surrounding area to leisure and business travellers, PR activity to attract the nation’s top travel writers, a conference office, and development of Bath’s official destination website www.visitbath.co.uk

Travel to Bath
Bath is easy to access from all over the UK and the world.  Bristol International Airport is just 15 miles from Bath and operates flights from the USA, as well as most major European and UK airports.  An express bus service to Bristol Temple Meads train station operates throughout the day, and Bath is just a 20 minute train journey from there. See: www.bristolairport.co.uk .  High speed, direct train services operated by First Great Western link Bath Spa train station to London and its major airports.  Bath Spa train station is well situated, just 5 minutes level walk into the city centre’s main shopping and tourist areas.  See: www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk .  Bath is easy to access by car, from junction 18 of the M4 motorway which links Bath to Bristol, London and South Wales.  There are 3243 pubic car parking spaces in Bath with the main long stay car parks at Charlotte Street and Avon Street.  There are three Park & Ride services on the outskirts of the city which operate fast, frequent services into the city centre, offering a hassle free, cost effective way of reaching the city centre.  There is also a Park & Ride service that operates on Saturdays only from the University of Bath.