This map dates from around 1880. The red dot marks the approximate location of the farm building.

The Past.

Today the farm is known as Bath City Farm which covers an area of 37 acres. As this picture shows a lot of housing has sprung up around the farm since then.

The farm pre-dates the Doomsday book, which was set up by William the conquerer in the 11th Century. The Doomsday Book shows how all the land in the UK was used and who owned it. It is very likely that the land has always been farmed, right from the very first farmers, some 10,000 years ago.

The limestone hillside over clay supports a number of natural springs. As you can see from our farm map, each field has its own traditional name such as "Lower Lamb Sleight", names that were lost due to lack of use. We have reinstated these names to develop, once more, a sense of history with the land.

• Lower Lamb Sleight - Sleight comes from an old english word "slaeget" or sheep pasture.
  
• Sideland Innox- Innox comes from an old Saxon word meaning "to inhoke" or leave fallow for a year.
  
• Springfield - So named from the spring that breaks out there.
  
• Maiden Furlong - Perhaps a field tended by nuns!
  
• Broads Sideland -
  
• Greater Lambs Sleight-

These fields are "unimproved grassland" with a history of traditional grazing, and are rich in wildflowers including Knapweed, cowslip, ox-eye daisy and scabiuos. In turn this encourages a wide range of insects and butterflies to our pastures.

Fields like this are becoming increasingly hard to find due to intense agricultural practices.

This picture was taken in the 1930's and shows Twerton Hill farm and the surrounding area.

How Bath City Farm Began.

Bath City Farm was set up by the local community in the early 1990's when the resident farmer retired. It gained charitable status in 1995. Over the past 12 years there has been considerable progress on site, including introducing our Soay sheep, goats, chickens, ducks and pigs. the bbc's DIY SOS team completed the farms first building in July 2005, providing our volunteers, after school club and staff with wet weather facilities and an office.

The farm continues to grow well. Four part time workers are now employed employed and they focus on the four key areas of our work, namely; Volunteering, education youth and conservation. We attract funding from various charitable trusts, and fundraising is always a high priority! We also receive some money through our grass keep license with a local farmer, who grazes his cattle in the fields at the farm from April to October each year, and conservation grants via DEFRA.

The Future.

It is our plan to continue to introduce different animals to the farm. We wish to set up some community allotments and an orchard in the very near future and we hope to develop our services into the weekends giving more people the opportunity to become involved in the work of the farm.