Swift bright flowing water

We visited Frome last week, managing to catch some dry weather although it wasn’t actually very sunny. many people are surprised at how hilly parts of Somerset is, and Frome is built on the edge of the Mendips so there are lots of ups and downs in the small town. I may have mentioned before that the town is named after the river and  Frome means ‘swift bright flowing water’, and like many settlements,  a town developed round the river and springs.

Fresh water runs down Cheap Street

Frome is over fourteen hundred years old, and one of the earliest buildings which created the ‘modern’ settlement here was a monastery founded  St Aldhelm, was established here, probably around 675AD.

There are still many medieval aspects to the town, cobbled streets, windy alleyways, little stone cottages, stairs and passageways leading the visitor through a maze of old buildings.

Frome was a cloth town for centuries, not just sending fabric out locally, but to London and exporting to the continent. From the  early middle ages to the turn of the eighteenth century. After that it became a market town and agricultural centre, and there are still markets held here, as well as an annual festival and many other events.

if you want an interesting place to visit, go to Frome!