This statue of King Henry VII stands over the amazing wooden doors at the Great West entrance to Bath Abbey. Why this particular King? Because Bishop Oliver King (who had the dream to rebuild the church in 1499) served as the King's Secretary, that's why! See: (
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"From the Abbey Church Yard, the large courtyard where everyone tends to congregate, you are looking at the west front of the building. You’ll see the heavy, decorated doors to the abbey with a large stone statue of Jesus Christ looking down from above them. These particular doors are hardly ever opened, normally only for big events. The real entrance is to the right.
Speaking of the doors, they are flanked by the statues of St. Peter and St. Paul. You’ll notice that one of the statues appears quite a bit shorter than the other. The unfortunate saint (I’m not sure if it’s Peter or Paul?) was beheaded during a particularly tumultuous time for Bath and a new head had to be formed for him out of his neck that was left behind, leaving him with a more stooped appearance than that of his fellow saint.
Back to when Bishop Oliver King took over the restoration of the church after it fell into disrepair under the Normans – much of the outside of the abbey looks as it does due to him. In the picture above, there are six figures carved into the church under canopies – the other side has the same. These figures represent the twelve apostles of Jesus Christ. In between them are angels climbing a ladder to heaven – these were added because of a dream Oliver King had, similar to that of Jacob’s in the Old Testament, of angels ascending a ladder into heaven. (Someone needs to tell the third one down that she’s going the wrong way!)
This was the mark Oliver King left behind on the abbey to show his work in rebuilding it. The carvings are symbols for his name – Bishop (the bishop hat), Oliver (the olive tree), King (the crown surrounding the tree). Pretty creative, right?
Walking around to the other side of the church, you’ll see the 150-year-old Rebecca Fountain. She was built by The Bath Temperance Association and inscribed with the words, “Water Is Best”, to promote morality and total abstinence from alcohol. At the time, the fountain was also a source of local drinking water, but when we visited, she was all dried up.
From practically any spot around Bath Abbey, you’ve got a great view of some pretty stunning medieval architecture. I like how this picture shows off the abbey’s many pinnacles and the flying buttresses. Cory could tell you all kinds of things about the buttresses, but I’m just like, Hey look, those are cool! I did learn one thing from him before I dashed off to take another photo – the buttresses are there to provide support for the high vaulted ceilings on the inside. So even before you go in, you know the inside is going to be pretty spectacular."