I moved to Weston village on the outskirts of Bath. Just at the bottom of Lansdown Lane which leads up to Lansdown… the other side of Bath has Lansdown Road. Imaginative naming there. It goes up to the race course and to where the Civil War battle was fought the Roundheads being based in Bath and using the saints’ heads climbing the ladder up the Abbey as target practice hence why quite a few seem to have no shoulders. I digress as no bikes were involved in the Battle of Lansdown as far as I am aware probably as the hill up there is too steep. Lansdown Lane would give Porlock Hill a run for its money. The Romans apparently founded Bath although I’m sure some folk lived there before a written history was made. The Romans loved it due to natural hot springs, which I learnt to swim in in the Cross Baths but that’s a swimming story so I won’t describe snowy nights swimming in the open air whilst the dads froze their proverbiballs off at the side, and also that it has seven hills as does Rome. From that it would be a fine place for the Giro d’Italia to start with three climbs and descents before a final climb out of Bath. Although there seems to be some debate as to what is a hill and what is a steep road going up to a higher plateau such as Lansdown. If you care to look this up all the hills are named “downs” due to the local parlance. Aptly, the photo is of an Upside Down Man (note arms and legs) depicting the upheavals of the English Civil War and in particular the Roundheads banning Christmas, or at least festivities. Didn’t go down well as you can imagine. And if continued the next chapter wouldn’t have happened…
