Prince Bladud and His Pig
What is it?
A statue of Prince Bladud that once stood on a fountain in Stall
Street. The
Bath
in Time website contains a newspaper cutting from 7th
December 1859 that refers to it, including the comment:
"...the work reflects great credit on Mr. J Williams and Signor
Pieroni, by whose enterprise and public spirit it has been
called into being. The hot water is exhibited in a series of
jets under a stone canopy. At the summit is a statue of King
Bladud, the swineherd, (a shade too dwarfish, perhaps,)..."
According to
Fisher, James Williams
re-engineered the existing fountain in 1859 and Stefano Pieroni,
born in Tuscany, supplied the statues. In 1873 Williams removed
the statues to his own garden with the figure of Bladud being
replaced by a stone urn.
(Fisher 2014)
The whole fountain was moved to Terrace Walk in 2009.
The pig is based on those produced in 2008 as a public art trail.
The pigs were sold for charity - before that they were all
collected on the lawn in front of the Royal Crescent, as shown in
this photograph:
Where is it in Bath?
The statue is in Parade Gardens, to the east of
Bath Abbey.
In the 17th century this area was part of the Abbey Orchard, lying
outside of the city wall. In 1709
Beau Nash
persuaded the entrepreneur Thomas Harrison to build an
Assembly Room on the edge
of this site. Between this building and a summerhouse on the river
bank were Harrison's Walks "a formal garden bordering the river
which for many years was a favoured resort of fashion"
[Ison 1980].
When
John Wood the elder laid out
the North and South Parades in 1738, he also redesigned the walks
and the area became known as St. James's Triangle [
Forsyth 2003].
As you enter the gardens you may pass the
King Edward VII Memorial, using
the steps that Timothée Chalamet walks down early in the film
Wonka (2023).
A plaque is fixed to the plinth of the statue:
The text on the plaque reads
"Prince Bladud
Who when cast out by his father herded swine, was cured of
illness by the hot waters and on becoming King founded Bath
Pig by Nigel Bryant 2009 after an original sculpture by Alan
Dun.
Prince Bladud by Stephano Pieroni 1859
Displayed here by King Bladud Public Art Project 2009 and Bath
& North East Somerset Council"
Location map of plaque:
(c) 2026
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