This street market was just near the River Frome, in Frome in Somerset. Now you might think the name of the river rhymed with ‘foam’, but in fact it rhymes with broom, as does the town, so it sounds like Froom. The town must be named after the river, because Frome comes from an old British word describing a flowing river, ffraw which means a briskly moving river, a beautiful river, a fine and fair river. It rises not far away at Witham Friary which is between Frome and Bruton, and after it has passed the town it eventually joins the River Avon.
If you were talking about the River Frome, this River Frome you have to mention that it is the river which passes through the town of the same name because there are other rivers with the same name. There is one in Bristol, now mostly hidden beneath culverts and in drains, one in Dorset, one in Herefordshire and one which runs through Stroud in Gloucestershire. The fact that these five rivers with the same name are all in the south-west, suggests the people who named them were the Dubunni who lived in the area before the Romans came.
The street market sold everything!
Lois Elsden 