The Market Town of Frome has always benefitted from its geographical location. Its steep hills around the River Frome made it a perfect place for trade routes to converged. It has thus been a market town since before the Norman evasion of 1066, when ‘sales’ were done primarily by exchange.
Today the market town of Frome sits firmly in its history…
By the mid eleventh century the population of Frome may have been almost 600. The average town at that time probably had a population of between 100 and 150. It thus became a busy and important centre. The Domesday Survey of 1086 recorded Frome as having three mills (for grinding grain) and a weekly market worth £2 6s 8d. Although the function of the town changed through the ages (a wool centre, a railway junction, a milk collecting centre), the market remained an important feature.
The Market
Frome market stalls were always piled high with products manufactured in the town as well as countryside products. But a big draw to the market was the wandering pedlars who were selling trinkets from distant and exotic places.
In the early 1700s, the population of Frome was almost 10,000, which was four times the population of nearby Bath. It became a valuable employer for the surrounding towns and villages in all areas including the market.
The Manor Rights
For centuries, King, lord of the manor, owned the Frome market place. Later the manor was granted to a succession of families and market rights went with it. But each transfer of ownership had to be authorised by the king and a Royal Charter had to be obtained to hold the market from 1239 when Henry III granted William Braunche rights to hold a market in Frome every Saturday. By 1494 the market day had changed to Wednesdays.
Today, the markets still draw people from all over Somerset to spend their money in the market town of Frome.
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