Twerton is a suburb of the city of

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, Somerset, England, situated to the west of the city, and home to the city's football club, Bath City. Twerton is served by bus route 5, operated by First West of England buses in the Bath area. For a time, there was a duplicate Wessex Connect service, operating under the name ''Royal Bath''. This was discontinued in the summer of 2013. First West of England also operates buses 20A/C (Bath Circulars). Twerton high street houses two pubs (the Old Crown and the Full Moon), a minimarket,

McColl's McColl's Retail Group is a British convenience shop and newsagent operator, trading under the trading names Morrisons Daily and McColl's (for convenience stores), Martin's (newsagents and pound shops) and RS McColl for some stores in Scotlan ...

convenience store (containing a Post Office counter formerly

Blockbuster Blockbuster or Block Buster may refer to: *Blockbuster (entertainment) a term coined for an extremely successful movie, from which most other uses are derived. Corporations * Blockbuster (retailer), a defunct video and game rental chain ** Blo ...

, a bakery, two learning centres, a volunteering organisation and two hairdressing salons. The Whiteway housing estate is located in the south of the Twerton electoral ward. There is also a community centre at the Quebec Social Centre and a community garden at Hanna Close.

History

The

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 records that Twerton was held by Nigel de Gournay, who would have won his lands in Englishcombe, Twerton, Swainswick and Barrow Gurney by fighting for

William I of England William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 108 ...

. His original home must have been Gournay, which was half-way between

Dieppe Dieppe (; Norman: ''Dgieppe'') is a coastal commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. Dieppe is a seaport on the English Channel at the mouth of the river Arques. A regular ferry service runs to Newh ...

and Paris. The parish of Twerton was part of the Wellow

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to des ...

. Thomas de Gournay was involved with the murder of

Edward II Edward II (25 April 1284 – 21 September 1327), also called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1307 until he was deposed in January 1327. The fourth son of Edward I, Edward became the heir apparent to ...

at Berkeley Castle in 1327. At the time when Brunel was designing the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 mill ...

, his plan was for the line from Bath to Bristol to go through the centre of Twerton. The railway station on the main line, called Twerton-on-Avon, survived until 1917. Twerton was also the terminus of one line of the Bath Tramways system until that closed in 1939. St Michael's church was enlarged in 1824 by local architect John Pinch the elder and rebuilt in 1839 by the city architect George Phillips Manners. Twerton Gaol was built by Manners in 1840 and closed in 1878. Only the governor's house survives, now converted into apartments. The author

Henry Fielding Henry Fielding (22 April 1707 – 8 October 1754) was an English novelist, irony writer, and dramatist known for earthy humour and satire. His comic novel ''Tom Jones'' is still widely appreciated. He and Samuel Richardson are seen as founders ...

who wrote

Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer * Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in ...

lived in Twerton and is believed to have written most of the novel while living there. His house, Fielding's Lodge, was demolished for road improvements by Bath City Council in 1963. Housing shortages and population growth after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

led to significant building of council housing in Twerton and Whiteway, on a much larger scale than elsewhere in Bath. The demographics of the area reflect that fact, with 48% of households in the ward renting from the council or other social housing bodies, and the ward remaining predominantly working class, in contrast to the rest of the city. The Centurion pub, which was built in 1965, was made a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

in 2018.

Geography

Carrs Woodland is a local nature reserve in the valley of Newton Brook. It includes the notable bath asparagus. Twerton Roundhill is a nature reserve of grassland with a range of wildflowers including greater knapweed and agrimony.

References

{{Reflist

External links

www.proudoftwerton.com – community site for Twerton, Whiteway and Southdown
Areas of Bath, Somerset Electoral wards in Bath and North East Somerset