BATH ABBEY has become a victim of its city's
popularity.
Subsidence in the underfloor graves of thousands of
people attracted to the Somerset spa for its hot-water springs have
created a honeycomb of voids.
Abbey officials this week dismissed media reports
that the Grade I listed medieval church is in imminent danger of
collapse, but an £18-million renovation and development project,
which will include pouring tons of concrete into the holes, should
get under way next year.
"It was like a Swiss cheese or an Aero bar," the
project director, Charles Curnook, said. "There are probably more
graves under Bath Abbey than most other churches. One estimate put
it at about 6000. Bath was a fashionable place in Georgian times,
people came from all over Britain and the Empire to take the
waters, and those who weren't cured were buried here."
The voids go down seven feet to the foundations of
the Norman cathedral that once stood on the site. Some are huge -
almost 5ft long and 18 in. wide and deep.
In 2011, a trial dig beside a column in the North
Aisle showed foundations on one side only. "The other was over
fresh air," Mr Curnook said. "But there were no cracks or
subsidence. We are certain that the structure of this building is
good. It is built on Norman walls and pillars, but there are places
where the overlap is not 100 per cent.
"Last year, we did a dig beside one of the main
pillars in the crossing, and were delighted to find there was a
very substantial foundation - but right beside that was a
substantial void where Georgian graves had been jammed right up
against the foundations. It showed us that the voids go everywhere
in the church."
A trial repair in a 50-metre square of the North
Aisle should be completed by December, and will be scrutinised for
12 months. The scheme includes a new choir school, kitchen, and
other facilities, and should be complete by 2018.
It also includes an innovative project using heat
from the city's original Roman baths, Mr Curnook said: "At the
moment, all the water goes down a Roman drain into the river -
that's 1.5 megawatts of energy flowing 24 hours a day. We intend to
put a plant on the drain to extract the heat for a local system for
us and surrounding buildings."