Community stalwart celebrates 90th birthday

LOCAL community stalwart, June Barnes, celebrated her 90th birthday on Friday 5th January with a party the following day, with friends and family at the football club.

Born and bred in Frome, June is chairman of the Frome Street Carnival and member of various community groups, activities and St. John the Baptist Church.

“I was born on Paul Street in a little cottage that’s been pulled down now,” says June. “I have seen tremendous changes in the town. The dairy that used to be on the top of Bath Street, that’s gone, all the factories have gone. It’s a complete change, all the fields that were around are now housing estates. The only thing that hasn’t altered much is the Market Place. The other cottage I used to live in on Whitewell Road has been pulled down and there’s a big house built on it now.

“I have worked in Frome too in various places; I worked at British Rail which is where I met my husband and eventually, I went to FDC Law where I was receptionist for over 50 years.

“I started netball at 17 and we always went to church, I was baptised and confirmed and married in St. John’s.”

As chairman of the Frome Street Carnival, June says she took this on when it was threatened with closure due to a lack of volunteers to help run the event. “I thought, ‘we can’t have that’, I used to go and watch the carnival with my parents, so I became a member, then I became a secretary and the last 25 to 30 years I have been the chairman.”

A highlight of the carnival, June says, was when one of her daughters, Sharon, was the Children’s Carnival Queen and June herself was the Carnival Gran.