This is the final episode of Footprints as Bathscape itself draws to a close early in 2026. And so for the first time ever, the Bathscape team gathered together in the same room to mark the end of an era.

I’m joined by Bathscape’s Manager Dan Merrett; Community Projects Officer and Walking Festival Organiser Lucy Bartlett and Volunteer Coordinator Emma Carlisle.

We bring you clips from our favourite episodes over the 5 years and use them to draw out the breadth and the depth of the work of Bathscape.

Clips in order of appearance

Promoting the 2021 Bath Walking Festival

Steppin Out Long Distance July 2021 - Ruth Pitter, Steppin' Sistas participant

PEOPLE AND BATHSCAPE VOLUNTEERS

Visions of Bath Feb 2022 - Andy Dinham, retired farmer Kelston Roundhill

One farm through one century April 2022 - Rachel de Fossard, ex-farmer's daughter, Manor Farm Langridge,

Heile Selassie in Bath July 2023 - Pauline Swaby-Wallace, manager BEMSCA

Surfing the Generations Sep 2024 - Abi, Princes Trust Programme Bath College and Mary, Forget-Me-Not Dementia Club, Twerton

Hedgelaying, Scything and Dry Stone Walling Aug 2024 - Dave Pegler, scyther

HISTORY AND HERITAGE

Full Steam Ahead! July 2024 - Karl Baxter, Ultramarathon runner

Radical Bath Oct 2023 - Professor Emerita June Hannam

Bath’s Industrial Past and Present July 2025 - Peter Dunn, ex-Stothert and Pitt employee and crane restorer

Death in Paradise March 2022 - John Payne, local author and historian

Geology of Bath March 2024 - Simon Hart, Managing Director and owner of Hartham Park Stone Mine

FLORA AND FAUNA

Beaver Spotting with Bevis Watts July 2022 - Bevis Watts, CEO Triodos Bank

This September, alongside our annual walking festival, Bathscape also hosted a Landscape City Conference looking at what the Bathscape Partnership has achieved and to inspire Bath's future. This is the penultimate episode of Footprints, and with the project itself drawing to a close, this episode shares a flavour of the day.

The conference was opened by Councillor Oli Henman who is the Cabinet Project Lead for Climate Change with Bath and North East Somerset Council. He was followed by two keynote speakers Andrew Grant and Dan Merrett before we hear from each of the three panels.

Clips from all of these are included and we also meet two Bath Spa 2nd year Architecture students Jazz and Marcus and hear their thoughts before and after the conference.

Keynote speakers

Andrew Grant, Director at Grant Associates, Chair Bathscape Board

Dan Merrett, Bathscape Manager

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Panel 1 Accessing the therapeutic landscape

Julie Barnett (Chair), Professor of Health Psychology, University of Bath

Lucy Bartlett, Community Projects Officer, Bathscape

Zina Abdulla, PhD Researcher in Green Equity, University of Bath

Panel 2 A dynamic landscape city in an uncertain climate future

Alex Sherman (Chair), CEO Bath Preservation Trust, Bathscape Board Member

Marion Harney, Associate Dean and Professor of Buildings and Landscape Conversation, University of Bath, Chair UNESCO World Heritage Site Advisory Board and Enhancement Fund, Bathscape Member

Funda Kemal, Module Leader and Architecture Lecturer, Bath Spa University

Panel 3 Land use in the setting of a landscape city

Tom Boden (Chair), General Manager for the Bath Portfolio, National Trust, Bathscape Board Member

Amy Coulthard, Market Development Director, EnTrade

Hamish Evans, Head Farmer, Middle Ground Growers

Claire Loder and Jude Rice, Co-founders of Bloomin' Whiteway

Links

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk

Grant Associates - grant-associates.uk.com

Bath Preservation Trust - www.bath-preservation-trust.org.uk

University of Bath - www.bath.ac.uk

Bath Spa University - www.bathspa.ac.uk

Unesco World Heritage Site for Bath - www.bathworldheritage.org.uk

National Trust - www.nationaltrust.org.uk

EnTrade - www.entrade.co.uk

Middle Ground Growers - www.middlegroundgrowers.com

Bloomin' Whiteway - www.bloomingwhiteway.com

This episode takes the opportunity to explore Bath’s two relatively new universities. Each of them sits in a unique landscape.

The University of Bath, high up on Claverton Down, is a modernist 1960s campus surrounded by open skies, mature trees and sweeping views. It started life in 1966 as Bath University of Technology and was renamed the University of Bath 5 years later. It has grown from a student population of almost 1,500 in 1966 to just under 20,000 students now.

Bath Spa University is set in a former country estate with lakes, temples and a 'Capability' Brown legacy. It became a university in 2005. It has a student population of just under 25,000.

Ralph Thompson is the Senior Lecturer in Zoology and Programme Leader for Wildlife Conservation at Bath Spa University and we hear about the university and grounds from him.

We are also joined by one of his students Evie de Gruyther who has just finished her degree at Bath Spa University getting a first class honours in Wildlife Conservation. She completed her dissertation this year by studying the bat population on the campus. She talks about her love of bats and what it was like to study at Bath Spa.

Marion Harney is Professor of Building and Landscape Conservation and Associate Dean for Education in the Faculty of Engineering and Design at the University of Bath. She is also the Chair of the Bath World Heritage Site Advisory Board.

She shows us around the university campus talking about the early super-structure architecture and the landscape design which was written into the initial brief to be a permanent feature of the campus.

We walked around amid the hot sun and torrential rain and we were joined by Badger the dog!

Credits

Music: Audionautix

Produced by Pommy Harmar

Links

Bath Spa University - www.bathspa.ac.uk

University of Bath - www.bath.ac.uk

Bathscape - www.bathscape.co.uk