In Bath they still wince about the fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary in the 1990s which uncovered a club riven with hidden tensions. What a shame no modern film-maker is embedded now because plenty has been happening behind the Downton Abbey-style facade of the club's magnificent Farleigh Hungerford training ground. Jettisoning a director of rugby when the team are on a 10-game winning streak is not a run-of-the-mill decision.

So what's going on? Let's just say Bath's millionaire owner, Bruce Craig, is leaving no Georgian stone unturned in his efforts to bring back the glory days to his local club. So far the considerable rugby brains of Steve Meehan, Sir Ian McGeechan, Brad Davis and now the former Springboks assistant coach Gary Gold have been moved on since Craig's tenure began in April 2010. The explanation for Gold's departure this month was that no one could agree how to define the title director of rugby. Huh? Next they'll be saying the Recreation Ground is an unsuitable name for a sporting venue.

Alternatively, the dapper Craig knows precisely what he is doing and we are entering the next phase of his grand design. Beneath the incongruous veneer of the surroundings – the chapel converted into a gym, the sweeping front lawns with goalposts – there is more substance and collective solidity than Gold's abrupt exit might imply. This month's "shock" reshuffle actually occurred last summer when the head coach, Mike Ford, was placed in day-to-day charge of the first team, selection included.

Ford, part of England's coaching team between 2006 and 2011, has since presided over an increasingly successful campaign. On Monday evening Bath United won the A League final and a quadruple of Premiership, Amlin Challenge Cup, Anglo-Welsh Cup and reserve team titles remains theoretically possible.

The 48-year-old Ford, for now, prefers to focus on the next three weekends. Over Christmas and into the new year Bath must face Harlequins, Northampton and Leicester, a trio ideally equipped to test whether something formidable really is developing on the world's most scenic training pitch. "We can't wait for these next three games because we want to test ourselves against the best," Ford says. "We want to know where we are and how far away we are from being what we want to be."

Replicating the era of Stuart Barnes, Jeremy Guscott, Simon Halliday, Roger Spurrell, Gareth Chilcott and Jack Rowell will take some doing. Ford is hardly a maverick coach in the Rowell mould but, slowly, Bath are rediscovering the hard edge without which no champion side is complete.

Halliday, in his recently published book City Centre, reckons Rowell "taught us how to win playing poorly" and the Bath of 2013-14 are similarly built on a strong pack with significant talent out wide when they are minded to use it.

It has yielded seven wins in nine Premiership games this season, the best start Bath have made for five years. Talk to the players and a growing bond is evident. Under Ford and his two fellow remaining wise men, Toby Booth and Neal Hatley, the policy is now to sign younger recruits rather than mature imports such as the New Zealand fly-half Stephen Donald.

"What's crucial is the culture," says Ford, attempting to explain why Bath have too often flattered to deceive since their European Cup win in 1998. "Maybe they tried to buy the culture in, whether that be a coach or a player from a successful club. It is very difficult to do that. For me you need to lay a seed in the ground, water it and cultivate it. The way we've tried to do it – and Bruce has bought into it this year – is to buy young. Get them in a circle, tighten them up into a band of brothers, and let them grow together. It's so powerful. You can't buy culture."

The likes of Ford's son George and the distinctly rapid Anthony Watson are clearly England squad members of the future, but Ford senior has explained to Craig that their development will require a little more patience. "He understands – and I've explained to him – that we're not going to win every game. We'll lose along the way but these guys will learn. He's excited that in five years' time George will be 25, Anthony Watson will be 24, Ollie Devoto will be 24, Jonathan Joseph will only be 26. You can imagine what might happen if we keep this group of players together and keep striving to improve. If we do that we can become very successful."

It would also allow Ford to deliver a two-fingered salute to those who mutter about his recurring ability – at Saracens, England and now Bath – to retain his own job at times when fellow coaches have moved on. On paper his record is excellent: Ireland briefly rose to third in the world while he was their defence coach; England reached the 2007 World Cup final and he also played for Great Britain at rugby league. Now is his chance to demonstrate he can inspire as well as he can organise.

"I signed for Wigan when I was 17 so I've been involved in professional rugby a long time. When you first become a coach you want to get to the top as quickly as possible. You're very, very ambitious but you don't realise how much of coaching is down to experience. I was head coach of Saracens in 2006 and you think you're ready. Looking back now, I was nowhere near ready. Only time will tell but I think I'm ready now."

He also reckons several of his players are ripe for Test recognition in 2014 including, intriguingly, the Fijian-born winger Semesa Rokoduguni who, as a tank sergeant in the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, is potentially eligible for England via his British Army service. Coaching-wise there are currently no plans to replace the ousted Gold, but Ford insists the club's prospects have not been tarnished.

"People look from outside in and don't know the detail that goes into every decision the club makes. It might not be this year but if we keep striving, we're going to get there sooner rather than later." The next three weekends will be fascinating.