Owner Comments:
Somersetshire Bath DH #40
Obverse: A crowned male bust to left, a bow and quiver of arrows slung across his shoulders SUCCESS TO THE BATH WATERS BLADUD FOUNDER OF BATH
Reverse: The front of a large building BATH. above the building. WEST FRONT OF NEW PUMP ROOM Ex: HEATH . 1795 IRONMONGER . & C. in three lines
Edge: Milled /////
Diesinker: Thomas Wyon
Manufacturer: William Lutwyche
Issuer: Francis Heath
Weight: 10.96g
Rarity: Common
Legend is that Bladud was the oldest son of Lud Hudibras, king of Britain. Educated in Athens, he returned home as a leper and was imprisoned. He escaped and eventually reached Swanswick, three miles from Bath, where he became a swineherd. One day he noticed that after his pigs wallowed in the mud of the valley that their skins became free of all sores. This led him to discover a spring of water that cured him of his leprosy. He returned to his father’s court and later succeeded him. He then returned to the spring, erected baths and built the town of Bath to commemorate his cure.
The New, or Great Pump Room, was completed in 1797.
Francis Heath was an ironmonger, brazier and cutler in Bath across from the pump room.
Struck on a large flan, the token comes on both large and small flans and both are common.
Atkins: Somersetshire 32
Bt. Merfyn Williams