FROME’S architecture has been praised by a TV historian in an article he wrote for the national newspaper The Guardian.
Dan Cruickshank, who writes and presents programmes on England’s cultural heritage and history such as One Foot in the Past and The House Detectives for the BBC, has named Frome as one of the UK’s best historic towns.
His article, Written in stone: the UK’s best historic towns, published by The Guardian, picks towns around the UK noted for their historic architecture and “the tales they tell of life down the centuries.”
Dan places Frome alongside other historic towns from all across the UK. These locations include Blandford Forum in Dorset, Stamford in Lincolnshire, Tenby on the Welsh coast, Berwick-upon-Tweed on the border of England and Scotland, Armagh in Northern Ireland and Ludlow in Shropshire.
He said about Frome, “As with all the best towns, the pleasure of a walk through Frome is far more than the sum of its parts.
“The spaces, the sustained streets, the sinuous forms, the vistas framed and enclosed, the surprise as corners are turned and amazing buildings or compositions emerge, offer great aesthetic thrills.
“There is Cheap Street – lined with early buildings, steep, paved and with a central gutter or “canal”, once a common feature in our towns and cities – the steep and cobbled Catherine Hill, Stony Street and Gentle Street with their generous Georgian houses, and the astonishing temple-like early 18th-century Rook Lane Chapel.”
Leader of Frome Town Council, cllr Mel Usher said, “That is a really good article. Dan Cruickshank is a respected expert in this heritage field.
“I have already asked that parts of it be put on the council website.
“For too long Frome has been a hidden gem, perhaps we haven’t had the confidence to say ‘come and have a look, we have loads to offer, there are great people here and lots to see and do.’
“We are trying to change that with the markets and proposals for the town centre which we will bring forward later this year. These things don’t happen by chance, we have to work at it and let the world know we are here. It’s all part of how should Frome, a small market town in the South West of England, packages itself to ensure that it stands out from the crowd, attracts visitors and investors alike and we do all this in such a way that the people who live here can still feel rightly proud of their town.”
You can view the full article on The Guardian website at www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2012/aug/17/dan-cruikshank-best-british-historic-towns?intcmp=122
