Discover Timsbury

For your trip to Timsbury, there are two distinct areas to explore: local history through houses and a tomb, and walks along named routes. You can choose between them based on a key difference: for the buildings, the focus is on form, date and attribution; for the walks, a stated starting point, destination and access conditions help with planning. This lets you choose the themes that will shape your stay.

Houses and a tomb as historical landmarks

Renny’s at Love’s Hill is a Grade II listed house dating from around 1800. Parish’s House tells a different architectural story: it is an extensive addition, built around 1816, to an older house. Parish’s House is attributed to Thomas Baldwin of Bath. Together, these details offer two different perspectives on architecture: Renny’s as a listed house with an approximate date, and Parish’s House in terms of its extension and named attribution. The reference to the extensive addition draws attention not only to the house as a whole, but also to how it was changed from an earlier building.

The Smith Monument offers a different point of reference: it stands in Timsbury churchyard and is a freestanding early 19th-century chest tomb made of freestone. Alongside houses, you can therefore encounter a tomb with a specific form. Its shape, material and date give the monument a distinctive architectural character within the local history.

The Ha-Ha: a route with local history

The Ha-Ha can be reached from St. Mary’s Close on the western edge of Timsbury and ends at Mendip View. This gives you a named starting point and destination, although the view at the end may vary depending on vegetation and weather. Path conditions can also change. So check the latest conditions before setting out if you plan this walk.

The name also points to local history. One possible historical interpretation describes the Ha-Ha as a sunken path intended to allow the wealthy residents of the now-demolished Timsbury House to avoid seeing miners on their way to and from the local mines. This explanation refers to the former residents of that house; it gives the route a social and historical dimension beyond its present-day function as a path.

Walks along the Somersetshire Coal Canal

There is an information board at Timsbury Basin. The basins at Paulton and Timsbury were the terminus of the Somersetshire Coal Canal. Since the canal closed in 1898, its bed has remained clearly visible in many places. The basin therefore offers a specific point of reference if you want to connect Timsbury’s canal history with its terminus.

You can walk along much of the Somersetshire Coal Canal where public footpaths provide access. Timsbury and the surrounding countryside have many footpaths within the Public Rights of Way (PROW) network. So route choice depends not only on the canal’s historical significance, but also on whether a public footpath provides access to the particular section. The combination of the visible canal bed, basin and paths makes the canal both a subject of historical interest and a reason to check the route in advance.

Discover more destinations: Kelston, Radstock, Ubley, Midsomer Norton, Farrington Gurney, Chew Magna, Keynsham, Bath

For the broader travel guide: Bath and North East Somerset.