Strange as it may seem today, before 1812 Bath Street didn’t exist at all and the main way out of Frome Market Place was up Stoney Street and then either left along Palmer St and into Rook Lane or right up Catherine Hill, all narrow dark and badly maintained roads.
The Market Place was divided into two halves, upper and lower, with a pub opposite and within a few feet of the door to the George alongside two other shops making the whole centre of the town cramped, dirty and dark. One of the prime movers behind the radical improvement to the town’s layout was Thomas Bunn, a local solicitor and philanthropist who had visions of transforming the town with sweeping Georgian terraces like Bath.
His description of the area to be cleared says it all, “I have counted three dung hills from one spot in a principal thoroughfare. In the very centre of town near the Market Place, and principally in a place called Anchor Barton, was such an accumulation of dung hills, slaughter-houses and tallow melting houses as is undescribable.
The principle thoroughfares were narrow lanes. That I might not mistake, I have measured some of them which remain. In the wider parts they are, including two footways, about 16 feet 7 inches; in the narrower parts 13 feet and 11 feet 10 inches.”
The new road involved the demolition of this slum area which was dominated by the Anchor Inn pub standing partly where number 4 Bath Street is now, that’s the one with the 2 ionic columns at the front, which date from 1836.
Some of the remaining ancient cottages can still be seen behind the large cedar tree past the rear entrance to the Old Bath Arms on your right as you go up towards Christchurch Street. The tree was one of a pair planted by Bunn in 1814. The cottages which faced them across the narrow Rook Lane were swept away by the new road – a job made easier by the fact that the freeholder of most of the land required was the Marquis of Bath at Longleat, which is how the road got its name.
Amongst the new buildings along the road is the impressive gothic screen which leads to St. John’s Church. Between that and the church itself, was a jumble of decaying slums including a pub called The Bell standing almost next to the church door, all demolished to make way for the road and give a more imposing view of the church.
Still impressive today and little altered apart from its shop fronts, Bath Street has some fine buildings, well worth a stroll on a sunny afternoon.
The history of Bath Street is explained in the book “Bath Street, Frome” by Derek Gill, obtainable from The Hunting Raven.
Mick Davis & David Lassman