Kind/Unkind walk

Compassion can be tricky, one person’s kindness is another person’s cruelty. The harshest of treatment can painted as kindness ‘for their own good’ and ‘kind’ and ‘unkind’ has changed through time.

What is ‘kind’? Is kindness ever purely altruistic, without an agenda to benefit ourselves? Or is it always based in vanity, pride and self-promotion? Has the definition of ‘kind and unkind’ changed over time? Is kindness shown in the material history of our town? Or is true kindness always a private act between friends and neighbours, private at the time and invisible to us now? We aim to leave you thinking about how the history of kindness ‘is complicated’.

Town Guide Lisa Kenwright is a historian and storyteller who has created this walk for us to explore these questions about the social history of Frome through its built environment. Anyone with an interest in local history should enjoy this…