Bath River Line: Fieldwork Facility brings a city's watery past back to the surface

Bath has an incredible past. Romans, Georgian crescents, Jane Austen gift shops. It's a city that does heritage really well. The River Avon winds through the middle of it all, yet for years, Bath's industrial history and its complicated, sometimes catastrophic relationship with water have barely had a look-in. That's starting to change.

Fieldwork Facility, the London-based design studio that describes itself as being built for "uncharted territories", has created the brand, wayfinding and interpretation system for Bath River Line, a new 10km riverside trail cutting through the heart of the city. And the starting point for the whole visual identity? Flood marks.

Since the 1800s, historic floods have been recorded by carving dates, lines and arrows directly into the stonework of buildings along the riverbank. Easy to walk straight past. Easy to dismiss as damage. But once you clock them, you can't unsee them. Robin Howie, creative director at Fieldwork Facility, took the studio on a field trip to Bath to photograph and sketch the marks beneath Halfpenny Bridge, and those quiet, stubborn little incisions ended up informing the project's entire visual language.

Fieldwork Facility designer holding a rubbing paper against a weathered stone wall to reveal a historic flood mark carved into the surface

Stone wall beneath Halfpenny Bridge showing carved flood marks with dates from the 1800s and a blurred figure walking past

Person wearing a red hat touching a stone wall marked with carved flood date "February 15th 1919" and the year "1898

Historic flood mark carved into stonework beneath Halfpenny Bridge showing the date "DECR 31ST 1900

Historic flood mark carved into stonework showing the date "NOV 13" and "1889" with measurement lines, documenting water levels from past flooding in Bath

Person in white shirt standing against weathered stone wall carved with dates and flood marks from the 1800s, including visible inscriptions for December, March, and February

Black signage with white text reading "Bath River Line" and an upward arrow, with water droplets covering the surface

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A city already groaning under the weight of its own history – and the detail that unlocks a fresh identity for it is something most tourists would step over without a second glance.

The resulting brand is clean and considered, with the seasonal rhythms of the river running through it, alongside those flood-level references. Interpretation across the route covers three themes: Riparian Nature, Hidden History, and Water! Water!, twenty-one stories in total developed with Bath & North East Somerset Council and a stack of local organisations, from the Environment Agency to Bath Industrial Heritage Trust. Nature illustrations are by local artist Marian Hill, and historic imagery comes from institutions including Bath In Time and the Royal United Hospital. Signage and wayfinding were engineered and installed by Rivermeade.

Public information panel on a brick wall showing historical photographs and text about the Great Flood of 1882 and Bath River Line

Wayfinding panels for Bath River Line featuring information about bats and Herschel's species on a green panel, and The Herschels and Bath River Line branding on yellow and black panels, displayed outdoors against bare trees and grass

Wayfinding posters for Bath River Line featuring illustrated wildlife including a blue insect, bird, falcon and otter above a white arrow symbol on green and white backgrounds, mounted on a brick wall beneath historic buildings

Person wearing a dark navy wool coat with copper-coloured hair, with a cursor icon overlaid on the fabric

Blue directional sign for Bath River Line mounted on a pole in front of a stone building with crenellated battlements

Black wayfinding sign for Bath River Line mounted on a pole, featuring a white raindrop symbol and text, with the River Avon visible in the background

Black sign mounted on a brick pillar showing the Bath River Line route map with an upward arrow and information about the 10km riverside trail through Bath's historic centre, with modern buildings visible behind

Black wayfinding sign for Green Park mounted on iron railings, with bare trees and manicured lawn visible beyond, marking the Bath River Line route

Bath River Line interpretive sign about otters, eels and Pulteney Weir mounted on railing overlooking the River Avon with Georgian architecture behind

Wayfinding signpost for Bath River Line showing directional arms to Bath city centre, Saltiford and Bristol, with shared path and river line information markers mounted on a post among bare winter trees

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This is the first phase of a much bigger picture. The works so far have focused on the stretch between Norfolk Crescent and Bath Quays, with a further £600,000 in grant funding from the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority already in the pipeline for the next phase. It's hoped that the development will give Bath's riverside the attention it deserves, but also boost biodiversity and encourage locals to be more active.

Fieldwork Facility loves this sort of project. Their work sits at the crossroads of communication, place, and environment, with a particular interest in the bits of the world that don't neatly fit into existing categories. Bath River Line is exactly that: not quite a park or a heritage trail, not quite a nature route. Something more interesting than all three.