The description of Frome, Somerset, England which follow is taken from ‘Somersetshire Delineated’, published in 1822 by Christopher and John Greenwood, Surveyors, a Topographical Description of each Town, Parish, Chapelry, etc. in the county.
A large populous market-town, in the hundred to which it gives name. It derives its appellation from the river Frome, which passes through the lower part of the town, under a bridge of five arches, and pursues, its course through Beckington to Road, and then forms the boundary of the county to Freshford, where it joins the river Avon. This town was formerly called Frome-Selwood, from its vicinity to Selwood-Forest.
It lies in latitude 51° 13′ 49″ 9. N. and longitude 2° 18′ 41″6. W. 12 miles from Bath, 24 from Bristol, 15 from Wells, and 1O7 from London ; and contains 2307 inhabited houses, and 2526 families, 106 of-whom arc employed in agriculture, 1576 in trade, manufacture, or handicraft, and 844 not comprised in either class. It is irregularly built, and consists of a great number of streets, very narrow, and indifferently paved, but most of them being on a declivity renders the town tolerably clean. A new opening has lately been made through the town, forming a very handsome street, with well-built houses on each side. The chief manufacture is that of woollen cloth; it has likewise an extensive trade in card making for the woolcombers, and on the river. are several mills for fulling, &c. The town was formerly governed by a bailiff, but is now under the direction of constables chosen at the courts-leet of the Marquis of Bath, and Earl of Cork and Orrery. Here is a free-school, founded by Edward the Fourth; a good charity-school, an alms-house for widows, and several meeting-houses for various denominations of dissenters. The church is extremely neat and spacious, being 152 feet long, and 54 feet wide, consisting of a nave, chancel, north and south aisles, four chapels, a vestry-room, and two porches, with a quadrangular tower supporting a handsome spire; the tower contains a clock, chimes, and eight bells.
The living is a vicarage, in the deanery of Frome; Rev. C. Phillott, incumbent; instituted 1813. Within that part of Frome called the Woodlands, to the north of Bramble Forest, stands another church, called the new church, which was built by Thomas Lord Viscount Weymouth, in the year 1712, and endowed with £6O per annum out of an estate at Pennard, in this county, in compliance with the last will and testament of his deceased brother, the Hon. Henry Frederick Thynne. His lordship also augmenting the stipend with £30 per annum, and £500, the greater part of which has since been applied to the purchase of an estate, called Codrington, within the parish of Frome, the net proceeds of which are also settled upon the minister of this church. The church is a handsome building, 68 feet long and 34 feet wide, with a square tower at the west end, surmounted by an octangular spire 70 feet high. Frome has two weekly markets, viz. Wednesday and Saturday (the former is the principal one for cattle and corn); also four fairs annually, February 24, July 22, September 14, and November 25. Population, 1801, 8748 — 1811, 9493 — 1821, 12,411.
