Museum of Bath at Work

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2015}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2015}}

{{Infobox museum

| name = Museum of Bath at Work

| image = Museum of Bath at Work.jpg

| established = 1978

| location = Julian Road, Bath, Somerset

| map_type = Somerset

| map_caption = Location within Somerset and the United Kingdom

| coordinates = {{coord|51.3882|-2.3625

|type:landmark|display=inline,title}}

| visitors =

| director = Stuart Burroughs

| website = {{Official URL}}

}}

The Museum of Bath at Work is a local history museum in Bath, Somerset, England.

The museum was established in 1978 as the Bath Industrial Heritage Trust. Its original collection consisted of a reconstruction of the nineteenth century engineering and mineral water business of Jonathan Burdett Bowler, founded in 1872.{{Cite book|title=Mr Bowler of Bath|last=Andrews|first=Ken|year=1998|isbn=0-9534201-0-8|location=Bristol|pages=10, 19}} When the Bowler firm closed in 1969 its contents were bought by a local businessman with the express intention of founding a museum.{{Cite book|title=Bowler|last=Andrews|pages=10}} Photographs taken of the original business were used to carefully reconstruct the shop, workshops, offices and bottling plant.{{cite web |url=http://www.culture24.org.uk/sw000096 |title=Museum of Bath at Work |access-date=2007-10-28 |work=24-hour museum }}{{Cite book|title=Bowler|last=Andrews|pages=10, 63–80}} Over 10,000 bottles and many thousands of documents were also saved.

Today, the museum seeks to present the commercial development of Bath over a 2000-year period. In addition to the Bowler collection, other reconstructions include a cabinet maker's workshop and a Bath stone quarry face complete with crane and tools. In 1999 a rare 1914 Horstmann car was acquired, and, in 2003, a comprehensive exhibition on Bath's development, 'Bath at Work: 2000 Years of Earning a Living' opened. A local history display in the Hudson Gallery opened in 2007 and features an ever-changing display of photographs. In 2007 the museum acquired a rare Griffin six-stroke gas engine, that had been in storage in Yeovil, Somerset, after having been moved from London in 2001.{{cite web|title=Only surviving Griffin engine returns home to Bath museum| url=http://www.culture24.org.uk/places+to+go/north+west/manchester/art45987|publisher=Culture24.org.uk|date=15 April 2007|access-date=27 February 2020}} It was built in 1885 and for some years was in the Birmingham Museum of Science and Technology.{{Cite journal|date=May 1980|editor-last=Edgington|editor-first=David|title=Stationary Engines at the Birmingham Museum of Science and Industry|url=https://www.internalfire.com/sem/loadpdf.php?file=75|journal=The Stationary Engine|publisher=Internal Fire – Museum of Power|issue=75|pages=5}} It is one of only two known examples, the other being in the Anson Engine Museum.

The museum is housed in the Camden Works building, constructed in 1777 as a court for the indoor game of real tennis.{{Cite book|title=Bowler|last=Andrews|pages=10}}