Even on casual acquaintance, the town of Frome – an hour south of Bristol by road or rail – seems distinctive, with a spirit of independence and adaptability, and of somehow being ahead of the curve, writes Andrew Swift…
Frome’s streets are lined with independent shops, its town council consists entirely of independent councillors and once a month a street market with a difference – known as ‘the Frome Independent’ – takes over the town. This spirit of independence goes back a long way.
As early as the 14th Century, Frome was an important cloth-making centre. The fast-flowing rivers around the town powered numerous watermills, but much of the work was done in home workshops, fuelling the spirit of enterprise that would be the keynote of the town’s prosperity.
Frome’s glory days arrived in the mid-17th Century, when it became a boom town for the weaving trade. By the time Daniel Defoe visited around 1725, he found it so ‘prodigiously increased’ that it was ‘now reckoned to have more Inhabitants in it than the City of Bath’.
Around 80% of these inhabitants were nonconformists, who built an extraordinary number of chapels. The grandest was Rook Lane, set in its own grounds high above the town and looking more like a magnificent country house than a place of worship.
Frome was still buzzing when William Cobbett stopped by a century later and described it as having ‘all the flash of a Manchester’. While the mills of Manchester would flourish for another century or more, however, the collapse of the West Country weaving trade was just around the corner. Frome, though, unlike many other towns, bounced back as new industries, such as metalworking and printing, were established.
History woven into its DNA
Today, things have moved on again, but reminders of times past are everywhere as you walk through the town. Scores of grand clothiers’ houses survive, along with hundreds of weavers’ cottages, their survival a testament not only to the sturdiness of their construction but also to the local residents who resisted their demolition. One of the most striking examples of how saving the past has provided an invaluable asset for the future is Rook Lane Chapel, closed in 1968 after its congregation dwindled but resurrected as one of the most dynamic arts centres in the south west.
Although Frome may keep a low profile as a heritage destination, it has 371 listed buildings, more than any other town in Somerset. Far from being a picturesque museum piece, however, it is thriving and dynamic and it is in the rich mix of past and present that the secret of its success lies.
So, while it has retained its medieval street pattern, that happens to suit modern requirements very well and makes it a delight to walk around. Those medieval streets also conceal a secret only recently uncovered – a warren of long forgotten tunnels deep underground, now slowly being explored for the first time in centuries.
At the heart of the town lies the Market Place, as it has done for centuries, and standing here you are surrounded by history. Take the pubs, for example. The Archangel has been there since 1665, while the George across the road, once Frome’s premier coaching inn, is even older. On the other side of the George was its great rival, the Crown, which closed a few years ago and is now a shop.
At the north end of the Market Place, behind the Blue Boar Inn – dating back to 1691 – is one of Frome’s grandest buildings, the Blue House, built three centuries ago as an almshouse and charity school, and still an almshouse today. Beyond it, Town Bridge, crossing the River Frome, is one of only a handful of bridges in the country with a row of shops on it.
The narrow lanes and alleys leading off the Market Place – Eagle Lane, Apple Alley, Angel Lane – open a very different window into the past. Chief among them is Cheap Street, with jettied Tudor buildings and a rill of water coursing along it. It leads to Church Street, from which steps climb to Gentle Street, once a main route into town, and now surely one of the loveliest streets in England. After passing Georgian clothiers’ houses, you come to the Chantry and the Hermitage, both 16th Century, and originally one property – the townhouse of the Marquess of Bath. Next door was another inn, the former Waggon & Horses, open by 1568, and once the starting point for coaches to London.
Gentle Street may be something of a backwater today, but Stony Street, at the south end of the Market Place, is anything but. It leads to Catherine Hill, the heart of Frome’s independent shopping district, a maze of paved and narrow streets, where you will find art and craft galleries, vintage and modern clothing, ceramics, gifts, antiques, jewellery, cafes, bars and micropubs, as well as more portals into the past.
As you climb Catherine Hill, you notice steps on the south side leading up through a low archway, past the site of a medieval chapel, into Sheppard’s Barton, a hidden complex of 18th century workers’ cottages. Lanes to the north of Catherine Hill lead into a tightly packed labyrinth of winding alleys, closes and steps, where rubble-stone cottages and workshops rub shoulders with chapels, grander houses and modern infills, jumbled yet harmonious and with a surprise around every corner.
Radical politics
The biggest surprise, though, is how Frome has acquired an uncharacteristic fame in recent years, thanks to the determination of local residents to take on – or rather take over – the town council. Their philosophy was simple – to give local politics a new energy and purpose by getting rid of party politics in pursuit of a new way of doing things. It was a way that involved the whole community and reflected the way the community wanted to see Frome develop. They called the idea ‘flatpack democracy’, and, having swept the board at the local elections, the idea started to be taken up elsewhere – and not just in England.
In 2015, councillors from Frome were invited to the Glastonbury Festival to share Billy Bragg’s Leftfield stage with representatives of Greece’s Syriza party, Spain’s Podemos party and Radical Independence campaigners from Scotland.
Nothing epitomises this new spirit than the Frome Independent. More festival than market, this monthly celebration (on the first Sunday in the month from March to December) sees the Market Place and surrounding streets closed to traffic and given over to local food and drink producers, artists and designers, purveyors of retro and vintage collectables and antiques, and street entertainment.
A short walk away is the Cheese & Grain – a social enterprise and music venue whose line-up of performers in recent years has included Paul McCartney and the Foo Fighters, but, which, to coincide with the Frome Independent, hosts the monthly Magpie Market, featuring vintage and contemporary gifts, jewellery and home-made crafts and produce.
For more information, visit the websites discoverfrome.co.uk and thefromeindependent.org.uk. Discover more of Andrew Swift’s work at akemanpress.com. All images courtesy of Andrew Swift.
