02/10/2026
Welcome be ye to another edition of “Rebuilding Medieval Bath,” where we dig past the Georgian exterior of Bath to find the hidden remaining medieval features within the city.
This week, I’m focusing on Broad Street, which ironically, is a very narrow street. However, its name has nothing to do with its width and everything to do with the industry upon which the city is built— textiles, specifically Bath broadcloth.
Today’s Broad Street has changed almost entirely from the street of the Middle Ages. However, it still bears the name given to it in the early 13th century, derived from the numerous textile shops that once lined the street. Much of Bath’s modern success is owed to the city’s role as a wool and cloth hub, known for its weather-resistant Bath Broadcloth. Broadcloth is woven on a Broad Loom, from which Broad Street gets its name. It’s said that at one time, there were as many as 50 broad looms in one section of Broad Street alone!
An early photo of Broad Street, taken 18 years after Charles Dickens stayed at The Saracens Head while working as a parliamentary reporter for the “Morning Chronicle.” In Dickens’ first novel, “The Pickwick Papers,” The Saracens Head is mentioned by name.
Turn your phone! On this map, you can see Broad Street in the upper right hand corner, where Northgate Street splits into Broad Street and Walcot Street, in the same way it does today.
“A good wif was ther of biside Bathe
But she was somdel deef, and that was scathe.
Of clooth-makyng she hadde swich an haunt
She surpassed hem of Ypres and of Gaunt.”
This is a section from the General Prologue of Chaucer’s epic poem “The Canterbury Tales,” describing the exceptional cloth-making abilities of one of the pilgrims, the Wife of Bath, or Alisoun. It highlights the importance and widespread appreciation of Bath’s textiles in medieval England, boasting that the quality of the city’s fabric surpassed that of the most important cloth cities in medieval Europe.
Miniatures depicting weaving from various manuscripts including the Mendel Housebook, a French translation of Boccaccio’s “De mulieribus claris,” “Le Champion des Dames,” and the Romance of Alexander manuscript. The
