Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Kelston Brass Mill and the weir
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There is a book museum, while the Victoria Art Gallery features 18-20th century British
art, notably works from Turner, Gainsborough, Sickert and Whistler, and also prints, draw-
ings, ceramics, glass and watches.
Local points of interest include the Forum, the Impossible Microworld of Willard Wigan
and a sculpture of huge nails. Even Sainsbury's store has a Georgian frontage with Ionic
columns and octagonal columns holding wrought-iron arches, this being a leading example
of a lesser Victorian station, the Midland Railway's Green Park terminus of 1870.
The William Herschel Museum is in the Georgian furnished home of astronomers and mu-
sicians William and Caroline Herschel, and is where Uranus was discovered in 1781. Stone
buildings are all around but none can match the 200m Royal Crescent of 1767-1774 by John
Wood the Younger. The 1796 home of the Duke of York at the end is now a Georgian mu-
seum and it is said that the ghostly footsteps of an unpaid servant who left two of the duke's
illegitimate children to starve can be heard there. It is set in the 23ha Royal Victoria Park,
a Park of Special Historic Interest with lakes, an aviary, a botanical garden, bowls, tennis, a
children's play area and the Dell, with ghostly sounds from the former duels for which it was
used. The Georgian Garden has plants and a layout from 1760. Bath Festival Maze of 1984
has a 4.5m diameter central mosaic incorporating the Gorgon's head and seven small mazes,
which use 72,000 pieces of Italian tesserae.
Dutch Island takes its name from a former miller. Weston Cut goes right past the Dolphin
Inn to Weston Lock, also known as Newton St Loe Lock. As with the following locks, smaller
craft need to take out up-ladders. Unlike the following locks, this one bypasses a weir with
large lifting radial gates.
