Place:Bath and North East Somerset, Somerset, England

Bath and North East Somerset is a unitary authority within the ceremonial county of Somerset. It was established in 1996 when the County of Avon was abolished.

this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Bath and North East Somerset covers an area of 220 square miles (570 km2), of which two thirds is green belt. It stretches from the outskirts of Bristol, south into the Mendip Hills and east to the southern Cotswold Hills and Wiltshire border. The city of Bath is the principal settlement in the district, but [the authority] also covers Keynsham, Midsomer Norton, Radstock, Westfield and the Chew Valley. While Avon County was in existence, the rural part of Bath and North East Somerset was covered by a district named Wansdyke.

The area has varied geography including river valleys and rolling hills. The history of human habitation is long but expanded massively during Roman times, and played significant roles in the Saxon era and English civil war. Industry developed from a largely agricultural basis to include coal mining in the 19th century. The industry precipitated the coming of canals and railways. Bath developed as a spa resort in Georgian times and remains a major cultural tourism centre having gained World Heritage City status.

For more information, see the EN Wikipedia article Bath and North East Somerset. especially the sections entitled "History" (highly recommended) and "Governance" (including the list of civil parishes and former rural districts and the link to Google maps showing their locations).

The article Somerset Coalmining gives a history of the coalfield and a list of the collieries together with the periods during which each operated.

Research Tips

Archives and Libraries

• The Somerset Heritage Centre (incorporating what was formerly the Somerset Record Office and the Somerset Local Studies Library) can be found at its new location at Langford Mead in Taunton. The Heritage Centre has an email address:archives@somerset.gov.uk.

• The Somerset County Council homepage has a search facility leading to pages of interest, including maps from the First and Second Ordnance Survey (select Maps and Postcards from the list at the left, then enter the parish in the search box)

• Old Maps Online has a further selection of local maps

• A Vision of Britain has a wide selection of articles of local interest.

• The Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Record Office in Bath, is open on Tuesday to Thursday from 9am - 1pm and 2pm - 5pm and on Friday from 9am - 1pm and 2pm - 4.30pm

• Each Library in Somerset has its own web page. The index page to libraries leads to each of the libraries along with the facilities to be found there.

• The Somerset pages of GENUKI contain a great amount of useful data and references to other websites. Some of the web links are not up to date.

• The four family history societies covering parts of Somerset are:

• Bristol & Avon FHS
• Somerset & Dorset FHS
• Weston super Mare FHS
• Friends of Somerset Archives