Editing Frome (section)

== Landmarks ==
[[File:St Catherines Hill Frome1.JPG|alt=Street scene showing narrow cobbled road past coloured shop fronts|thumb|upright|left|Catherine Hill]]
[[File:Catherine Hill, Frome, 16 February 2018.jpeg|thumb|upright|left|Stony Street, from Market Place to Catherine Hill]]

The older parts of Frome – for example, around Sheppard's Barton and Catherine Hill – are picturesque, containing an outstanding collection of small late 17th and 18th century houses.{{sfn|Gathercole|2003|p=21}} The Trinity area, which was built in the latter half of the 17th century and first half of the 18th, is a fine (and rare) example of early industrial housing.  More than 300 houses were built between 1660 and 1756 in an unusual early example of a planned grid pattern. Although about half the area was demolished in the 1960s under a [[Slum clearance in the United Kingdom|Slum Clearance]] Order, before its historical importance was realised; the remainder was saved and was restored at a cost of £4 million between 1980 and 1984.<ref name="Goodall" /> In this area is the elaborate former Selwood Printing Works. Stony Street, which leads into Catherine Hill, is a steep, cobbled road climbing out of the town centre. In the centre of the town, Cheap Street contains buildings dating to the 16th and 17th centuries and has a stream running down the middle fed by the spring at St John's Church. Cheap Street has never been used for vehicular traffic and its layout is based on land plots dating to approximately 1500. Despite a fire in 1923 the buildings have remained substantially unchanged since 1830, apart from shop-frontages.<ref name="Goodall" />

{{anchor|Frome Bridge}}<!--- anchor to which [[Frome Bridge]] redirects. "Frome Bridge" appears not to be its established name, is not documented as far as I know, but it seems useful within Wikipedia to allow usage of that term, e.g. linking from [[Irgandı Bridge]] article about another bridge with buildings.--->
The bridge in the centre of the town over the River Frome was rebuilt and widened in 1821,<ref>{{NHLE|desc=The Bridge|num=1057856|access-date=22 November 2011}}</ref>{{sfn|Gathercole|2003|p=10}} at which time a terrace of houses was built along one side of it.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1345464|desc=5–9, THE BRIDGE|access-date=25 November 2020|fewer-links=yes}}</ref> It is one of only three bridges in England that carry buildings; the others are [[Pulteney Bridge]] in Bath and the [[High Bridge, Lincoln|High Bridge]] in Lincoln. The Tourist Information Centre in Justice Lane is contained within a circular dye-house known to have been in existence by 1813, one of two surviving in the town (the other being in Willow Vale<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1174827|desc=Dye House, Willow Vale|access-date=15 July 2019|fewer-links=yes}}</ref>). It was restored in 1994.{{sfn|Gathercole|2003|p=24}}<ref name="Goodall" /> In the 1990s and early years of the 21st century, Frome benefited from considerable investment in the restoration of its historic buildings through the [[English Heritage]] Heritage Economic Regeneration Scheme and the [[National Lottery (United Kingdom)|National Lottery]] Townscape Heritage Initiative.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Historic Building Repair in Frome |url=http://www.mendip.gov.uk/Documents/Regeneration/frome%20blt%20lowres.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611121616/http://www.mendip.gov.uk/Documents/Regeneration/frome%20blt%20lowres.pdf |archive-date=11 June 2011 |access-date=7 February 2010 |publisher=Mendip District Council |page=7}}</ref>

[[File:Blue House Frome.jpg|alt=Yellow stone building with central 2-storey block with arched windows, hipped roof and clock tower|thumb|upright|[[The Blue House, Frome|The Blue House]], a Grade I listed building]]

Frome has 370 listed buildings, the greatest number within Somerset, outside of Bath.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Listed Buildings in Somerset |url=https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/england/somerset |access-date=2019-02-13 |website=britishlistedbuildings.co.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190214002824/https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/england/somerset |archive-date=14 February 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> Individual buildings are best examined through Historic England's listings.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Search the List – Find listed buildings |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/ |access-date=2019-02-14 |website=Historic England |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190214222159/https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/ |archive-date=14 February 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> Three of these (including the parish church) are [[listed building|Grade I listed]]. [[The Blue House, Frome|The Blue House]], next to the town bridge, is another; it was formerly the Bluecoat School and Almshouses, named after the colour of the school uniforms. Built in 1726 at a cost of £1,401 8''s'' 9''d'', it replaced an [[almshouse]] dating from 1461 and rebuilt in 1621. The Blue House provided a home for twenty widows and schooling for twenty boys. The front of the building is adorned by two statues, of a man and a woman, indicating the building's dual purpose. The building's role as a school came to an end in 1921 and it now provides accommodation for seventeen elderly residents.{{sfn|Gathercole|2003|p=15}}<ref name="Goodall" /><ref>{{NHLE | desc=The Blue House | num=1345500 | access-date=29 August 2007 }}</ref>

[[Rook Lane Chapel]] was a [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] chapel built between 1705 and 1707 by James Pope: "The size and pride of the building are remarkable at so early a date."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pesvner |first=Nikolaus |title=The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol |publisher=Penquin |year=1958 |isbn=0-300-09640-2 |location=London |pages=197}}</ref> The chapel had a gallery around three sides and the centre of the ceiling was domed and supported by two [[Tuscan column]]s. Rook Lane ceased to be used as a chapel in 1968 and there followed twenty-five years of neglect. In the early 1990s the building was [[compulsory purchase|compulsorily purchased]] by [[Somerset County Council]] and transferred to the [[Somerset Buildings Preservation Trust]], which carried out repairs and restorations. In 2001 it was converted by a firm of architects, the ground floor becoming a community hall and arts centre managed by Rook Lane Arts Trust and the galleried upper floor becoming offices for the architectural firm NVB Architects.<ref name="Goodall" /><ref>''Rook Lane Chapel 1707–2007: a short history'' (2007). Rook Lane Arts Trust.</ref><ref>{{NHLE | desc=Rook Lane Chapel | num=1167729 | access-date=29 August 2007 }}</ref>

Frome is reputed to have one or more systems of tunnels beneath the streets of the older parts of the town. Some entrances are visible above ground; for example in the wall at the top of Stony Street, with other entrances in the cellars of shops and houses. Their purpose and full extent remain unknown but they have been investigated in recent years by at least one local group and a documentary has been made.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Introduction |url=http://www.frometunnels.co.uk/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907235617/http://www.frometunnels.co.uk/ |archive-date=7 September 2008 |access-date=21 June 2009 |publisher=Frome Tunnels Project |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

Merchants Barton, in the Saxonvale area east of St John's church, dates to circa 1785, the approximate date of the Silk Mill or Thompson's Mill.{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} It is a passageway used by workers and employees of the textile crepe and silk industry that set up factories and mills in Saxonvale during the early eighteenth century.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rural Rides, by William Cobbett.|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34238/34238-h/34238-h.htm|access-date=2021-04-23|website=www.gutenberg.org}}</ref> When these closed in 1925, an engineering company from Cardiff called Notts Industries<ref>{{Cite web|date=2013-09-23|title=Notts Industries|url=https://fromemuseum.wordpress.com/collection/metalworking/notts-industries/|access-date=2021-04-23|website=Frome Museum|language=en|archive-date=23 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423083840/https://fromemuseum.wordpress.com/collection/metalworking/notts-industries/|url-status=dead}}</ref> settled in the lower part of Saxonvale and Bussmann Cooper, an American fuse manufacturer, took ownership of the upper part.  During the mid-20th century, up to 300 mostly female workers in the engineering and fuse factories who walked to and from work along the Merchants Barton were referred to locally as the 'Bussmann Girls'.{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}}

One of Frome's most ancient and unregarded structures, the Old Town Wall, runs along from Bath Street through into upper Saxonvale below Lidl,<ref>{{Cite web|title=History|url=https://silkmillstudios.co.uk/about/history/|access-date=2021-04-23|website=Silk Mill Studios & Gallery|language=en-GB}}</ref> whilst the Old Slaughterhouse facade with its blocked-in coach arches and mixture of dressed and rubble stone sections is architecturally of significance in assessing the surviving fabric of previous barton buildings.{{Citation needed|date=November 2021}}