The fourth of a series of articles tracing the fascinating and varied history

of the building the Museum now occupies

This is the fourth in a series of articles tracing the history of the building that the Museum now occupies.  We ended the previous article in 1813, with the Tennis Court being used for all sorts of one-off events and entertainments – boxing matches, a hot air balloon display, and a circus.

Soon there is a notice in the Bath Chronicle & Weekly Gazette (5 December 1816), placed by the Girls’ Free School in Grove Street, announcing the removal of the school to the Tennis-court in Morford Street.  Due to demand for places,

“The Committee deemed it their duty to look out for a more commodious situation.  They have therefore engaged those healthy and spacious Premises, late the Tennis-court, in Morford-street; … a SCHOOL-ROOM capable of containing FOUR HUNDRED GIRLS; … the moral and religious instruction of the girls forms a distinguished feature in this institution … Besides teaching them Reading and Plain Needlework, and Knitting, the Ladies Committee have caused a few of the biggest girls to be taught to WASH and IRON, together with other branches of domestic employment, with a view to prepare them for useful stations of SERVANTS.  These girls being lodged and boarded in the house …”

There follows a list of subscribers and “NB Plain Needle-work done on low terms”

There are a several interesting details in this advertisement.

Four hundred girls – if you know the Museum, imagine them sitting close together in rows on wooden forms, probably in four or five groups each led by a teacher.  We are also told that the girls were lodged and boarded ‘in the house’ – this is the dwelling-house that was then adjacent and part of the property lease.

Whilst much is made of the religious instruction given, it is clear that the most important accomplishments are washing and ironing clothes (mentioned in capital letters) and plain needlework (darning, mending and making simple items).  The impression overall is less of a school, and more of a workhouse.  If we think of Charlotte Bronte’s character Jane Eyre at miserable Lowood School (published 1847), this is probably a closer picture.  There is also some archive reference that the girls were making pins.  There was a factory in Westgate Street in the mid-19th century and they may have been doing piece-work.

The school didn’t last long.  In 1825 the premises were again up for sale or let.  It is uncertain who took it on because in the 1830s it seems to enter another phase of temporary uses.  On 10 November 1831 the Bath Chronicle & Weekly Gazette reports that a meeting to discuss forming a Bath Political Union took place at the Royal Tennis Court, Morford-street: … there were about 3000 persons present”.

This is obviously a wild exaggeration, even if most of them were standing outside.  But these were big meetings:

“Bath Election. – Since our last, Mr Roebuck has addressed bodies of the electors at the Masonic Hall, York Street, and at the Tennis Court, Morford Street.”

(BCWG 20 September 1832)

This is John Arthur Roebuck (1802-1879) the young radical MP for Bath 1832-1847 – you can read about him here – and his portrait is in the Victoria Art Gallery collection.  There are further reports of these meetings in the following few years and the Bath Chronicle & Weekly Gazette is most disapproving; reporting on Roebuck speaking in the House of Commons, the Chronicle says:

“He has already found that the eloquence suited to the Tennis Court and Orange Grove in Bath, is not exactly the kind of stuff for delivery in an assembly of gentlemen”

(BCWG 26 March 1835)

– implying that the sort of people who go to these meetings are a rowdy rabble.  Over the next few years 1836-39, there are further disparaging references to the Tennis-court as a shorthand for left-wing/radical meetings attended by working people.

Meanwhile the building was also used for other events, such as the boxing match between “Luke Rogers, the Hereford Chicken”,
Deaf Burke and Dick Curtis (BCWG & November 1833).

 

This delightful account reads like a scene from Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers (written at almost exactly the same date).

 

 

 

 

  In May 1835, the building is for sale at auction again, the notice suggesting it could be used as     a chapel, school, or factory.

 

And after this, I could find no further references to the building for about 25 years, until 1868     which we will explore in the next article.

   Full Series:           links added after publishing

 Part 1       Part 2       Part 3        Part 5        Part 6     Part 7

Building complete timeline can be viewed here

Ann Cullis November 2024