Prehistoric Finds from
Whatley Quarry near
Mells suggest the presence of late
Pleistocene mankind.
Neolithic bowl barrows have been located in nearby Trudoxhill. At Murtry Hill, just 3 km to the north-west of Frome, a Neolithic long barrow 35m long by 19m wide was located with substantial upright stones (Orchardleigh Stones), a 'chest' burial and cremation urns. Within Frome itself, another long barrow was found, with skeletons, pottery and a standing stone; its structure seemed similar to the Long Kennet barrow. Others from the Bronze Age have been identified in
Berkley to the north-east and near
Nunney to the south-west. The name Frome comes from the
Proto-Brythonic word *
frāmā (
Modern Welsh ffraw), itself from
Proto-Celtic *
srōm- meaning fair, fine or brisk and describing the flow of the river.
Roman There is limited evidence of Roman settlement in the area. The remains of a
villa were found in the village of
Whatley, to the west of Frome. Another villa is suggested at Selwood.
Southill House in
Cranmore, 10 miles southwest, has evidence of a villa with a
hypocaust. Two villas have been surveyed in the Hemington area, to the north-west of Frome, alongside other sites, ditches and boundaries. A Roman road ran from the west of the
Mendips passing south of Frome en route to
Old Sarum (Salisbury) and
Clausentum (
Southampton) or to Moriconium (
Hamworthy near
Poole), probably for the export of lead and silver from mines in the Mendips. Part of a Romano-British sculpted head and part of a Roman road surface were found near Clink, Frome: possibly linked to a Roman road running south from
Aquae Sulis (Bath), but this has been traced only as far as Oldford Farm, Selwood, just north of Frome. Just to the southeast is Friggle Street, suggestive of a Roman road. In April 2010, the
Frome Hoard, one of the largest hoards of
Roman coins discovered in Britain, was found in a field near the town by a metal detectorist; the 52,500 coins dating from the third century AD were in a jar below the surface. The coins were excavated by archaeologists from the
Portable Antiquities Scheme, and some are now on display in the
British Museum. The find was the subject of a BBC TV programme
Digging for Britain in August 2010. A further 250
Dubonnic coins had been found in an urn when ploughing near Nunney in 1860; they included those of
Claudius who began the conquest of Britain. Other coins continue to be found in this neighbourhood, both Roman and Byzantine.
Medieval A church built by St.
Aldhelm in 685 is the earliest evidence of
Saxon occupation of Frome. Aldhelm was a member of the Wessex royal family, cousin to
King Cenwealh. The Saxon kings appear to have used Frome as a base from which to hunt in
Selwood Forest. In 934 a
witenagemot was held there, indicating that Frome must already have been a significant settlement, with even a royal palace. The
charter names a Welsh sub-king, sixteen bishops and twenty five ministers, all called by
Æthelstan, now regarded as the first king of England. Æthelstan's half-brother, King
Eadred (son of
Edward the Elder), died in Frome on 23 November 955. At the time of the
Domesday Survey, the manor was owned by
King William, and was the principal settlement of the largest and wealthiest
hundred in Somerset. Over the following years, parts of the original manor were spun off as distinct manors; for example, one was owned by the
minster, later passing to the
Abbey at Cirencester, which others were leased by the Crown to important families. By the 13th century, the Abbey had bought up some of the other manors (although it did let them out again) and was exploiting the profits from market and trade in the town. Local tradition asserts that Frome was a medieval borough, and the reeve of Frome is occasionally mentioned in documents after the reign of
Edward I, but there is no direct evidence that Frome was a borough and no trace of any charter granted to it.
Hales Castle was probably built in the years immediately after the
Norman conquest of England in 1066. The circular
ringwork is in diameter and stands on the northern slope of Roddenbury Hill, close to the
Iron Age Roddenbury Hillfort, to the south-east of Frome. It comprises banks and outer ditches and has an unfinished
bailey. At a similar distance to the south-west of Frome stands
Nunney Castle, "aesthetically the most impressive castle in Somerset," built from 1373 onwards, surrounded by a moat. In 1369, there was a record of 'three tuns of
woad' being purchased by Thomas Bakere of Frome, probably from France. Such a large quantity of the blue dye suggests a well-established trade for local dyers and clothiers. A 1392 survey of the town mentions
tentergrounds: fields of racks for drying the cloth and five
fulling mills. Where originally wool was exported to Flanders and Italy, more was increasingly retained at home for the production of cloth. Woolens such as
broadcloth and the lighter
kersey became primary products for the area. Surnames such as Webbe (weaver) or Tayllor appear in the early 14th century and there are explicit references to cloth makers in 1475. By 1470 Somerset was the largest producer after Suffolk, making most of the undyed white broadcloths. On 12 April 1477, a widow,
Ankarette Twynyho was taken from the manor house known locally as the Old Nunnery in Lower Keyford, accused by
George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence of the murder of
Isabel Neville, Duchess of Clarence, who had died in 1476, probably of
childbed-fever after birth of a short-lived son. At Warwick, she was charged with "having.....given the Duchess Isabel 'a venomous drink of ale mixed with poison' of which the Duchess has sickened from 10th October to Christmas, when she died. Ankarette protested her innocence, but a packed jury condemned her. She was sentenced and drawn to the gallows.....and hanged all within three hours."
Clarence himself was imprisoned in the Tower shortly afterwards and was executed for treason early in 1478. Ankarette's grandson Roger Twynyho received from
Edward IV a full posthumous pardon for Ankarette.
Monmouth Rebellion On King Charles II's death in February 1685, the
Duke of Monmouth, his illegitimate son, led the
Monmouth Rebellion, landing with three ships at
Lyme Regis in Dorset in early June 1685 in an attempt to take the throne from his Catholic uncle,
James II. On 25 June 1685, Robert Smith, the constable of Frome declared Monmouth was King in Frome's marketplace, "as confidently as if he had the crown on his head". Frome was the first locality in England to declare for him. On 28 June, the forces of Monmouth camped in Frome, following their defeat in a skirmish with the
King's forces at
Norton St Philip, arriving at 4 o'clock in the morning "very wett and weary". Monmouth is reputed to have stayed in a gabled house in Cork Street, now named the Monmouth Chambers. Whatever discipline he had over his troops vanished as he dallied in Frome, unsure what to do. He left on 30 June for Shepton Mallett. At the subsequent '
Bloody Assizes' more than 500 rebels were brought in front of the court; out of these, 144 were
hanged, drawn and quartered, their remains displayed across the country so that people understood the fate of those who rebelled against the king. The other rebels were subjected to
transportation to
America. In all, 50 Frome men were convicted. 12 men, none of them from Frome, were hanged in the town at Gibbet Hill, Gorehedge.
Rise and fall of the cloth trade The manufacture of woollen cloth was established as the town's principal industry in the 15th century. In 1542 during one of his itineraries to observe historic English and Welsh landscapes,
Leland described Frome as a town that "hathe a metley good market" and "dyvers fayre stone howsys in the towne that stand y the moste by clothinge". He went on to mention what seems to be Spring Gardens where the Mells River meets the River Frome: clothiers' buildings and fulling mills: "I cam to a botome, where an other broke ran in to Frome. And in this botome dwell certayne good clothiuars havynge fayre howsys and tukkynge myles." Frome remained the only Somerset town in which this staple industry flourished. The River provided power for a range of mills along its length, dyewood grinding, fulling, dyeing: 10 or more within 2 km of the town. In the mid-1720s,
Daniel Defoe estimated that "Frome is now reckoned to have more people in it, than the city of
Bath, and some say, than even
Salisbury itself...... likely to be one of the greatest and wealthiest inland towns in England". Poverty, the decline of the wool industry in the mid-18th century, increased industrialisation, and rising food prices led to some unrest amongst the inhabitants of Frome, and there were riots during the century. By 1791, the town was described in less flattering terms than those Defoe had used 50 years earlier. A survey of 1785 listed these occupations: "47 clothiers. 5 dyers, 12 fellmongers, 3 woolstaplers, 54 spinsters, 6 fullers, 146 shearmen, 141 scribblers, 220 weavers, 5 handle setters, 8 twisters, 4 spinning jenny men, for a total of 651 and for the ancillary
card making industry 5 cardboard makers, 59 card makers and 23 wire drawers." These occupations of the cloth trade formed almost half of the heads of household in the town. Scribbling (rough carding), carding, spinning and fly shuttle weaving all became mechanised. There were several public disturbances in this period. In 1754, a mob of Mendip colliers and destitute people from Frome protested against the rising cost of flour. A mill and its contents were burned down, others severely damaged. Rioters extorted money from mill owners. Four men were killed when an assault was made on another mill barricaded by the owner and three soldiers. In 1766, a miller in
Beckington defended himself against a mob of 2,000, firing upon them, wounding some; all of his wheat and flour were seized and fires lit. In 1796, a body of Mendip colliers entered the town armed with bludgeons to force local millers to reduce their bread prices. The constable called for dragoons stationed in the town and they themselves were assaulted. Sabres were drawn and the mob dispersed, bloodied but without fatalities. Afterwards the constable was threatened with arson and murder. At a time of rising unemployment, the price of potatoes provoked a riot in Frome in 1816. Magistrates read the
Riot Act and suppressed the trouble with local militia and dragoons, preventing an attack on a Sheppard factory. By 1800, the population had increased beyond 12,000. There was a brief boost to the trade from the
Napoleonic Wars, with Frome supplying blue uniform cloth of 160 miles a year in 1801. As mechanisation increased, fewer skills were required; wages fell along with living conditions. Dyeing ceased. Steam engines replaced water mills. By 1826, the parish established a blanket factory to employ the poor. A lack of investment locally meant the nation chose to buy the cheaper and lighter cloth produced elsewhere. Many mills closed as the trade steadily declined. Tucker's at Wallbridge, the last fabric mill of 'The Finest West of England Cloth', closed in 1965.
To the present day In the early 19th century, plans were developed to reinvigorate the town and once again elevate it to its former position as a more important town than Bath. These plans, the idea of
Thomas Bunn, a man of independent means inherited from his father, mostly failed to come to fruition, although some public buildings were erected and a wide new approach road to the town centre from the south was cut (named Bath Street after the landowner,
Lord Bath of
Longleat House). Whilst wool remained an important part of the town's economy into the 19th (and even 20th) centuries, other industries were established in the town. A bell-foundry started in 1684 by William Cockey grew to be a major producer of components for the developing
gas industry and employer of 800 people, as a new enterprise of his descendant,
Edward Cockey The
J W Singer brass foundry and bronze-casting works, was a major employer and produced bronze statues. John Webb Singer was born in Frome and established his art metal work foundry in 1851. They made brass ornaments for local churches and became known through the
Oxford Movement within the
Church of England which led to increasing demand for church ornaments. In addition to church ornaments the firm developed new facilities, opened as the Frome Art Metalworks in 1866, and then the expertise to create large statues. One of the first statues cast in 1889 was that of
General Gordon riding a camel. The firm was responsible for the bronze statue of
Boudica with her daughters in her war chariot (furnished with
scythes after the
Persian fashion), which was commissioned by
Prince Albert and executed by
Thomas Thornycroft. It was unveiled in 1902, 17 years after Thornycroft's death, and now stands next to
Westminster Bridge and the
Houses of Parliament, London. The statue of
Lady Justice on the dome above the
Old Bailey was executed by the British sculptor,
F. W. Pomeroy and cast by Singers. The statue of
Alfred the Great at
Winchester was a further commission. The statues from Singers have been exported around the world. Printing was another major industry, with the Butler and Tanner printworks being set up in the middle of the century.
Brewing was another source of employment. A record of more than 140 local survivors of WWI has been published. These survivors included Charlie Robbins who was the model for the bronze statue forged by the
Singer company which stands as the memorial for the fallen of Frome. The population fell and in the 1930s it was slightly smaller than it had been in the mid 19th century. Other industries such as printing, light engineering, metal casting, carpeting and dairying continued, many taking old premises from the cloth mills and others being sited at the new Marston Road Trading Estate which led to growth after
World War II, including the construction of
council houses. == Governance and public services ==