Penn's Bath, Portland, Dorset

King George III made sea bathing popular around the start of the 19th century and John Penn, the builder and owner of Pennsylvania Castle, decided that he would join in this healthy pursuit.

However, he was not so keen that he wanted to climb all the way down from his Castle to Church Ope Cove. So he had this huge carved stone bath built halfway between the Castle and the sea. His servants were to struggle with buckets of sea water to fill it.

Here we see my best friend Sandra posing in the bath in the mid-1990s.

John Penn was very unpopular with Portland's governing Court Leet. So, the Leet members watched and waited as the bath was built.

When finished they announced that Penn had built his wonderful bath on Common Land and that he would have to pay to use it - an exorbitant Half a Crown (about 13 pence) per year!

Outraged, Penn abandoned his bath - probably much to the relief of his servants!

In 1989 the bath was heavily overgrown and could only be visited by a very precarious struggle through brambles over a precipitous drop. A visit is for the strong-hearted and adventurous only.

Park in the car-park opposite Pennsylvania Castle, cross the road (carefully!) and follow the footpath down to St Andrew's ruined church. Go to the right-hand corner of the graveyard where there is a gap in the wall and a safety bar across the gap.

Through this gap is a dangerous and precipitous slope. Keep to the right and skirt this drop. You will need to hang on tightly to trees or you will fall and could be seriously injured.

Continue struggling through the overgrowth and suddenly - you will be amazed to find a large stone structure. The bath and its associated building is before you!

The diagrams below show the large size of John Penn's bath and associated buildings. These cover an area of 8.3 m x 5.3 m (27 ft x 17 ft). There were two rooms other than the one containing the bath. Their purpose is not known. The room to the east of the bath has a substantial drop of about one metre (3 ft) from the surrounding ground level and there is another drop into the bath.

Section through A - B.

The approximate level of the ground outside is indicated by the brown dotted line.

At the eastern end is a vertical aperture 1.0 m (3 ft) high by 1.2 m (4 ft) wide surmounted by a strong lintel. Was this a window to a structure that originally had a roof?

A view of the western end of the structure showing the two western rooms. The bath is hidden by the tree on the right. To get this view I had to swing by one hand from a branch and click the camera with the free hand!

Below we see me in this precarious position just before I fell!


Left - In the bath looking east towards the aperture Right - Looking west into the bath room.