Editing Frome (section)

=== Rise and fall of the cloth trade ===

The manufacture of woollen cloth was established as the town's principal industry in the 15th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of Frome Town |url=http://users.breathe.com/djsteward/history.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509063042/http://users.breathe.com/djsteward/history.html |archive-date=9 May 2008 |access-date=30 September 2008 |publisher=Frome Town}}</ref> In 1542 during one of his itineraries to observe historic English and Welsh landscapes, [[John Leland (antiquary)|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.&nbsp; And in this botome dwell certayne good clothiuars havynge fayre howsys and tukkynge myles."<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Leland |first1=John |url=http://archive.org/details/itineraryofjohnl05lelauoft |title=The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535–1543. Edited by Lucy Toulmin Smith |last2=Smith |first2=Lucy Toulmin |date=October 1907 |publisher=London G. Bell |others=Robarts – University of Toronto |volume=V |access-date=9 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160831064727/https://archive.org/details/itineraryofjohnl05lelauoft |archive-date=31 August 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> Frome remained the only Somerset town in which this staple industry flourished.<ref name="belham" />

By the end of 1500s, the population was around 3,000.&nbsp; The trade declined but then revived again as various clothiers changed their products and expanded their business.&nbsp; The population doubled in size by the mid-1600s, though wages remained low for both weavers and spinners.&nbsp; From 1665 to 1725 further major expansion occurred, including the building of a new artisans' suburb, now known as the Trinity area, one of the earliest purpose built industrial housing in the country.<ref name="havinden">{{Cite book |last=Havinden |first=Michael |title=The Somerset Landscape |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |isbn=0-340-20116-9 |series=The making of the English landscape |year=1981 |location=London |page=215}}</ref><ref name="Griffiths 113">{{Cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Carolyn |title=op.cit. |pages=113}}</ref>&nbsp; The River provided power for a range of mills along its length, dyewood grinding, fulling, dyeing: 10 or more within 2&nbsp;km of the town.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Carolyn |title=op.cit. |pages=112}}</ref> Families of clothiers gradually came to be the principal landowners in the town, with the manor of Frome itself finally passing into the ownership of a cloth merchant in 1714.

In the mid-1720s, [[Daniel Defoe]] estimated that

{{blockquote|"Frome is now reckoned to have more people in it, than the city of [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], and some say, than even [[Salisbury]] itself...... likely to be one of the greatest and wealthiest inland towns in England".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vision of Britain, Daniel Defoe, Letter 4, Part 2: Somerset and Wiltshire |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/travellers/Defoe/16 |access-date=2019-03-04 |website=www.visionofbritain.org.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180407002318/http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/travellers/Defoe/16 |archive-date=7 April 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

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.{{sfn|Gathercole|2003|p=6}} 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 [[Carding|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.<ref name="Griffiths 113" /> The [[Sheppard family (clothiers)|Sheppard family]], settled in Frome since 1558, became dominant, building new factories, purchasing land and properties, being the first to bring in machinery; the establishment of [[Turnpike trusts|turnpike roads]] improved access to markets home and abroad.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gill |first=Derek J |title=The Sheppards and Eighteenth Century Frome |publisher=Frome Society for Local Study |year=1982 |location=Frome |pages=1–7}}</ref> Scribbling (rough carding), carding, spinning and fly shuttle weaving all became mechanised.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Carolyn |title=op.cit. |pages=261}}</ref>

There were several public disturbances throughout this period. In 1754, a mob of Mendip colliers together with 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Swan Circle » Blog Archive » 'For the good of the poor': the Frome Riots of 1754 |url=http://ukfamilyrecords.com/Blog/?p=294 |access-date=2019-05-09 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /> In 1767, 500 local shearmen assembled and broke up a newly installed [[spinning jenny]] in a mill close to Frome.  Among many actions across Somerset and [[Wiltshire]], spinning jennies were smashed in a mill by a mob in 1781.<ref>{{Cite web |title=West Country cloth workers {{!}} Tolpuddle Martyrs |url=https://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/story/tuc-150/early-unions/west-country-cloth-workers |access-date=2019-05-09 |website=www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190503121126/https://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/story/tuc-150/early-unions/west-country-cloth-workers |archive-date=3 May 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|date=September 2019|editor-last=MacLeay|editor-first=Alastair|title=The 'late alarming Riots', Frome 1797|url=|journal=Frome Society Year Book|location=Frome|volume=22|pages=41–42|access-date=}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Riots at Bath and Frome (2 Jul 1816) |url=http://www.gomezsmart.myzen.co.uk/fabric/times/riots1.htm |access-date=2019-05-09 |website=www.gomezsmart.myzen.co.uk |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509155631/http://www.gomezsmart.myzen.co.uk/fabric/times/riots1.htm |archive-date=9 May 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Carolyn |title=op.cit. |pages=113–115, 142, 259}}</ref>