Learning

Bath World Heritage Day went digital!

Saturday 18th April was UNESCO World Heritage Day.  We had organised a big, free, community event to promote the city’s World Heritage Site status, and celebrate Bath being part of the wider World Heritage family.  As we were unable to welcome visitors in person this year we brought you a digital Bath World Heritage Day instead! 

We hope you will continue to join in with some of our special activities at home.  We'd love to see your pictures and creations. You can share with us on Twitter (@BathWHS), Facebook or by email.  

Select below to find family activities to try at home themed on the six unique elements, recognised by UNESCO in 1987, that make Bath a World Heritage Site.

• The Hot Springs (mix up a bubbly bath bomb or rainbow water)
• The Roman Remains (make your own mosaics)
• 18th Century Town Planning (design your dream town)
• 18th Century Architecture (construct your own columns)
• The Development of ‘Polite’ Society in the Spa Town (create cartoons and caricatures)
• The Green Setting of the City (draw or paint your view)

To dive deeper and try out extra activities you can freely download the Bath World Heritage Site primary resource pack and secondary resource pack.  These were produced in partnership with Bath Preservation Trust.  The activities include making your own mini museum (primary), finding out about King Bladud and the mythical origins of Bath (primary), considering the risks to World Heritage (secondary) and asking questions about Bath’s future (secondary). 

If you fancy a grown-up challenge you can try our UK World Heritage quiz or try and guess the World Heritage Site from the emojis. 

Bath World Heritage Day is always a partnership effort when we showcase the amazing collections, work and opportunities offered by museums and heritage sites across the city.  Many of these partners have created lots of wonderful online resources, activities and virtual tours to keep us entertained while we are unable to visit in person.  Here are some useful links:

Lots of activities to try at home from the four museums of Bath Preservation Trust: No. 1 Royal Crescent, Museum of Bath Architecture, Herschel Museum of Astronomy and Beckford’s Tower

Science, games and craft activities from the Roman Baths

Get arty and crafty with the Victoria Art Gallery

Colour and create with the Fashion Museum

Get historical with Bath Record Office activities, and start your Coronavirus diary

Download Discovery Sheets from the American Museum and Gardens

Join the Holburne Museum's 'Creativity 4 Wellbeing' virtual art group. Download fun weekly activities and make or decorate a spoon for a virtual installation. 

Get exploring in the garden or close to home with Bathscape

Digital downloads of our World Heritage Site City Trail and Nelson Trail are now available.  If you live in or near the city centre you could try following sections during your 'One Walk a Day'.  Please respect social distancing rules.

Read all about the impressive projects undertaken around Bath supported by the Bath World Heritage Site Enhancement Fund in the 2020 newsletter. 

Lots of work is going on behind the scenes to keep projects on track.  We are busy with our plans for the brand new World Heritage Centre in York Street, which will open to visitors in 2021, as part of the Archway Project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.  We are very excited!  We look forward to being able to share and promote Bath's wonderful World Heritage with a wider audience of local residents and visitors to the city.

If you are feeling nostalgic revisit some happy memories of how we celebrated World Heritage Day from 2014 to 2019.