Reasons to be cheerful!

IT was a great relief to see the Three Swans in King Street re-open its doors in July with a new landlord Jim Sheppard who has spent the past 10 years in the hospitality trade.

The ‘Swans’ has as good a claim as any to be one of the oldest in Frome as, although its name is not recorded until 1742, the building is much older and may date from the 1600s. At some point in the nineteenth century the original pub with the gable was joined on to the building on the left or northern side which more than doubled its size.  

Little is known about the character of the early Three Swans but it is clear that by the 1800s it had a reputation as a lively house.  One Friday evening in 1827 a ‘disgusting young fellow’ was engaged in the tried and tested tradition of doing anything for a bet – in this case eating 191 large Bristol oysters (having already dispatched seven penny worth for his supper) and drinking a quart of beer.  There is no fear of that sort of behaviour today as the pub does not yet serve food and the wonderful pie maker, producing delicacies before Covid, has moved away.  

During the 1850s the landlord was Robert Eyres who got into trouble for allowing a lethal combination of soldiers, loud music and prostitutes who were ‘carousing lewdly’ late into the night.  After several outbreaks of this kind he was heavily fined and left in 1859. 

Illegal measures were another problem. It was against the law to possess measures other than those allowable by Parliament. This does not necessarily mean that the landlord was cheating his customers as it was common to serve drink according to what the customer could afford so the measure might be for a penny or halfpenny’s worth of beer rather than the standard pint or half pint; sensible it may have been but against the law it certainly was. 

Sadly, the pub fell into decline and despite many valiant efforts to revamp it and attract customers it closed its doors in 2012. This could have been the end as with so many pubs but luckily it was bought by local businessman Chris Moss and reopened in 2014. Despite the rather eccentric opening hours and lack of food it continues to go from strength to strength. 

Further good news is that the Crown at Keyford is undergoing extensive renovations and hopes to open at the end of September. This is another ancient pub described by Pevsner as ‘a fine 17th century building’. The first definite mention is from 1785 when Richard Pobjoy was in charge. Mentions are sparse and it is sometimes hard to differentiate between this Crown and the one in the Marketplace next to the George. Landlady Lucy Joyce went bankrupt in 1824. John Stevens took over in 1839.  He had been working as a carpenter in Blatchbridge for almost twenty years before moving to Frome in the mid 1830s, he continued running a construction business alongside his duties as a publican.  

Joseph Singer was landlord in 1851 when a hideous murder took place and the four men accused of the crime had visited the Crown on the afternoon of the murder and Singer was later to testify to this fact. He was afterwards attacked by one of the men following their acquittal. The full story is told in our book, The Awful Killing of Sarah Watts. 

The pub passed through various hands and served the locals largely without incident. During WWI with an acute shortage of labour the local paper contained the following advertisement. 

Person (respectable) WANTED, for general work in public house and willing to assist in bar when required. Soldier’s widow not objected to. Mrs Riddle, Crown Inn, Keyford, Frome. 

Once more, the latter part of the 20th century took its toll and falling trade caused the pub to close in 2020, and again before long another saviour appeared this time in the shape of Dan Carr who is working flat out get the pub totally renovated and opened by the end of September. 

There are also rumours that the Old Bath Arms will be reopening in the same month, but this has yet to be confirmed. There is also the Packhorse which has been undergoing renovation for some years but this seems quite quiet at the moment…watch this space. 

Mick Davis & David Lassman. 

The history of Frome pubs past and present is told in ‘The Historic Inns of Frome’ by Mick Davis & Valerie Pitt, obtainable from the Hunting Raven bookshop & Frome Museum