Bath Chronicle - Next to last day

On Thursday, it seemed much more relaxed back at the office as everyone could breathe again now that the paper was published for that week. I was asked to write some more articles, such as an article about an art exhibition being put on by the Bath Art Bizarre Group and a follow-up story on three Bath rugby fans who took on a challenge to canoe from one game to the next for charity.

After researching, phoning, interviewing and writing up the articles, I was then sent to another photo op, this time at the Royal Hospital for Rheumatic Disease. The Bath National Osteoporosis Society had raised money to buy the hospital four new state of the art mechanical beds which they were unveiling that day. I arrived about ten minutes before it started, spoke with the main organisers and took notes during the speeches. I then set up the shot of members of the society and members of hospital staff surrounding the bed with a commemorative cake in the forefront of the image, seen below.

At the end of the day, I was then asked if I could call the Head of Heritage Services on the Bath City Council to get permission to come in and take photographs of all the Bath Heritage sites the next day. The staff at the Chronicle needed to update their photo files to have current photos of all the heritage sites and asked if I could spend the day photographing them.

They had the number of one contact, Pat Dunlop, the Head of Heritage Services in the Bath Council. When I called and asked about coming to photograph the Roman Baths, Pump Rooms, Victoria Art Gallery, Royal Crescent No.1 and the Bath Abbey, she referred me to another woman named Maggie Bone. After speaking to her and explaining what we needed to do, she said she would let everyone know at the places under their jurisdiction (the Roman Baths, Pump Rooms and Victoria Art Gallery) that I would be coming the next day. For the other ones, however, she said that they have no authority to grant permission and I would need to speak to the other organisations.

This took some time and research, as I then had to search on the internet to find out which organisations had jurisdiction over the other sites. I found the main number for Bath Preservation Trust, the organisation that overlooks the museum at No. 1 Royal Crescent, and gave them a call. However, they seemed very hesitant and wanted to know why. They eventually came back with the answer no, we couldn't come in to photograph because of something vague they put down to copyright reasons. I told my mentor, Graham Holburn, about it and he said not to worry about it at all since they were the ones losing out on publicity.

I then found the office number for the Bath Abbey online and gave them a call. They were much more helpful and said to come in at any time to take photos the next day, which would be my last day working at the Bath Chronicle!