CONSERVATION AND REGENERATION IN FROME
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Feb 2009
Frome has more listed buildings than any other town in Somerset. For many years this
blessing was a real headache, but more latterly it has become a real asset to the town.
The Trinity area, the earliest parts dating back to 1675, was by the 1950’s very derelict and in
the 1960’s part was cleared as slums and rebuilt.
A second area was cleared in the late 1960’s. In 1968 Rook Lane Chapel was closed to
worship, and remained empty for the next 35 years.
By the early 1970’s the national mood was beginning to change, and in 1971, the Frome Civic
Society was formed to save the Trinity area from slum clearance.
In the same year, 1971, Frome Urban District Council went ahead with a CPO for the final
clearance of Trinity , which was confirmed by the Secretary of State in 1975
Around the same time in 1972, Somerset County Council produced a plan to expand the
town and to build an inner relief road around the town centre, parallel with Catherine Hill and
through the market yard, demolishing the Black Swan, the Museum and the Masonic Hall.
Properties were acquired to build the road, and much of the inner area of the town was
blighted with empty decaying buildings awaiting demolition.
Later in 1972, an article appeared in The Architects’ Journal castigating the County Council
for its insensitive proposals to drive a road through the historic heart of the town.
However, the CC did designate in 1973 a small area in the centre of the town, around Cheap
Street and Gentle Street as a Conservation Area
In 1975 the Rape of Britain, written by Colin Amery and Dan Cruickshank with a forward by
John Betjeman was published. It described how the character of 30 towns up and down the
country were being destroyed through demolitions of historic buildings and townscape. It
included a chapter on the rape of Frome and showed how new roads and CPO’s were tearing
the heart out of the town
But in the same year as the Rape of Britain, 1975, local government was reorganised
Frome Urban District Council gave way to Mendip District Council (MDC)
MDC was landed with what to do with the CPO for the last part of Trinity. In 1977 they
decided to commissioned Moxley Jenner architects to prepare a report
They recommended that of 145 remaining houses, 110 should be renovated, and 35
demolished and rebuilt with modern infill housing and this was started in 1979 and eventually
completed by 1986, when it won a Civic Trust Award
This set the pattern for future restoration work.
There were still a large number of historic buildings in the town centre that were vacant and
deteriorating. particularly in Catherine Hill.
In 1988 MDC set up a Town Scheme with financial support from English Heritage, Frome
Town Council and SCC and for 8 years between 1988 to 1996, it funded the repair of 58
buildings and the repaving of Catherine Hill and Stony Street at a cost of £200,000.
In 1996 the Town Scheme was superseded by the Conservation Area Partnership Scheme.
MDC’s Buildings at Risk Survey had revealed that Frome had the highest number of Buildings
at Risk in the District and to meet this challenge MDC, SCC and FTC put together a grant fund
of £450,000 targeted at several key landmark buildings and streets, The CAPS ran for 3 years
between 1996-1999 and helped to fund the restoration of a further 33 buildings, the repaving of
Apple Alley, the rescue of Monmouth House and the restoration of Selwood Printing Works for
housing.
The CAPS was itself superseded by a third grant programme called The Townscape Heritage
Initiative, which ran from 1999 to 2004. This helped to restore 38 buildings, including some in
Bath Street, the Lamb Brewery, the Feather Factory, Frome Museum, the Sun Inn, Garston
Lodge and Minty’s at a total cost of £777,000
The fourth and final grant programme, known as the Heritage Economic Regeneration
Scheme, or HERS for short, ran from 2002-2006. This helped to restore 10 buildings, including
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some on the Town Bridge, some in Keyford and last but not least, The Crown Hotel. The total
spend was £268,000.
So these four schemes together provided grants amounting to £1,700,000 for repairs to historic
buildings over 18 years between 1988 and 2006.
Throughout most of this period, Rook Lane Chapel, a Grade I listed building, closed for
worship in 1968, stood empty, gradually falling into disrepair and subject to vandalism. It
passed through the hands of successive developers for 23 years, before being compulsorily
acquired by SCC in 1991 and sold to the Somerset Building Preservation Trust, who repaired it
and sold it to MDC in 1993.
For the next 8 years it continued to stand empty, but used occasionally for exhibitions and
community events. In 2001 NVB Architects based in Frome proposed a scheme “with an ethos
of business and art working together in the community for mutual benefit”.
In essence, the architects proposed to occupy the balcony area, leaving the ground floor for
community use, and they proposed building a modern extension accommodating further offices
plus a kitchen and café for community use.
This was approved and the building was renovated and opened by the Duke of Gloucester in
2003, since when the numerous community events within the Chapel have become an
important part of the life of the town.
When the 1970’s scheme for an inner relief road carving through the historic centre of Frome
was finally abandoned in 1985, MDC decided to use their CPO powers to acquire some of the
back yard areas of land, known as The Piggeries for a new housing development of 71
homes. Land ownership and community interests were very complex and the project took 14
years of painstaking work to knit together an acceptable scheme, which was finally completed
in 1998.
It won the RTPI award for Planning Achievement in 1999. Special reference in the citation
referred to the team work between the architects, council officials, contractors and the housing
associations and the care taken in dealing with the local community.
Finally, a few words about Local Listing. Everyone is familiar with the statutory listing of
buildings of historic or architectural interest. But many other buildings that are not listed are
also of historic interest, and unless they are within a Conservation Area, they have no
protection against demolition and redevelopment.
Three years ago, a planning application was submitted to demolish a Victorian villa, Critchill
Grange, built in 1858 near the edge of Frome, and replace it with 10 homes. This caused a
large outcry from the community and a call for the establishment of a District wide Local List.
The Planning Board of the District Council supported this and with the help of MDC, Frome
Civic Society together with Frome Town Council are now in the process of finalising the way in
which this will be achieved.
On Local Listing, English Heritage says in the preamble to paragraph 1 of ‘Conservation
Principles, Policies and Guidance (2007) that “people may value a place (or building) for many
reasons: its distinctive architecture or landscape, the story it can tell about its past, its
association with notable people or events, its landform, flora and fauna, because they find it
beautiful, awesome or inspiring, or for its role as a focus of an established community. In
paragraph 52 they say “the fact that a place does not meet current criteria for formal listing,
does not negate its value to particular communities”.
Paragraph 23 of the Executive Summary to the DCMS White Paper on Heritage Protection for
the 21st Century (March 2007) says “local designation has an essential role to play: local
designation provides a means for local communities to identify and protect the buildings, sites
and spaces that matter to them. It helps to build a sense of local identity and distinctiveness, a
sense of history, place and belonging”. So there is government support for Local Listing.
John Peverley
Chair Frome Civic Society