Kindness Trail

The Good Heart is an independent CIC that nurtures and celebrates community kindness and encourages anything which enhances the common good. This non-profit venture offers free and low-price meals through a pay-it-forward scheme in their friendly café on 7 Palmer Street, as well as being a recognised Warm Space, and a hub for community groups, events, and activities.

A community-centred forest garden in the heart of Frome. This project was led by Edventure to create a beautiful communal space for nature to be felt, explored, and learned from. With the help of lovely volunteers, the once unused piece of land along the river Frome between Henley Way and Welshmill Allotments provides an opportunity for community gatherings, learning, exercise, and time spent enjoying the pond and natural wildlife. Wildlife conservation charity, Froglife, has also teamed with the Frome Town Council to build a beautiful pond to encourage new wildlife habitats.

Starting with soil health and food, Loop is building a circular economy regeneration network within Frome by harnessing the power of cooperation. By uniting with groups, businesses and individuals, Loop recognises the inner lives of people and community relationships and hopes to create systems that are useful and accessible for the whole community. The network mainly focuses on a weekly food waste collection, which is turned into compost that is like “black gold for your soil”, and then fed back into the community.

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SHARE Frome is the first share shop of its kind in the UK, and runs as a partnership between From Town Council, Edventure, Sustainable Frome and the Cheese and Grain. The shop encourages borrowing instead of buying new in order to reduce the carbon footprint of Frome by reducing material production and landfill waste. SHARE also provides a community space for people to donate, volunteer, connect, and build skills.

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Saved from housing development plans in 2019, this once-disused scrubland is home to an array of birds, insects and mammals, and its transformation is now underway to become a valuable community asset. The Broadway Community Gardens Association are working towards the vision of this community cornerstone, to improve Frome’s food resiliency, and provide a growing and composting hub, learning centre, and a quiet sanctuary for all to enjoy. 

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This social-centric café aims to create a warm and welcoming space where everyone in the community can come together, make meaningful connections, and build a more inclusive and respectful community. The café is open on Christmas day to offer a place for those facing social isolation to gather and enjoy some holiday cheer and support. There is also a scheme whereby little ones can pick litter in the park in exchange for a free refreshment!

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As part of the more general evacuation of children from London in 1939, the boys of Coopers School arrived in Frome and were allocated the seven large converted army huts next to Northcote house on what is now the Frome College campus and were billeted with several hundred local families. The local populace welcomed the school and the staff and students integrated themselves well into the local community. Along with re-unions a more permanent symbol of gratitude to the people of Frome was the presentation of two teak seats, which were replaced with the current stone version in 1999.

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W J E  Bennett (Vicar of Frome 1852 - 1886), who was a leading figure in the Oxford Movement,  set about changing and renovating large sections of St John’s Church between 1852 and 1866 into a fine example of Victorian Anglo-Catholicism. His more Catholic approach led him to have continual doctrinal differences with the established church, but maintained a high standard himself of pastoral care. He exhibited this in the cholera epidemic in London before coming to Frome, where he continued to give help to the poor and needy. 

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In order to improve the education of children he organised the demolition of the old Grammar School and built, at his own expense, the St John’s Infant School in 1856, which continued until 1928. It then became the Parish Hall and is nowadays the Bennett Centre.

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The original Almshouse was built by William Leversedge, the Lord of the Manor in about 1480, who was moved by the plight of the homeless in Frome. Despite donations and legacies the building fell into disrepair, but it's saviour was a public-spirited local solicitor, James Wickham, who came up with a daring plan for completely rebuilding the structure and at the same time incorporating a charity school to cope with the educational needs of a growing population.

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 The present building was erected by 1728. It was known as Blue School from the knee-length blue coats with brass buttons worn by the school boys. Provision was made for twenty boys to be clothed and educated for four years and then apprenticed to useful trades. The school closed in 1921.

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Alongside was the Women's Almshouse,  where 30 aged women would find a  home and a small sum of money provided by the Foundation. 

In more recent times the building has been in need of modern upgrading and renovation and a number of successful public appeals from the 1960’s onwards has meant that residents  can now enjoy a comfortable place to live.

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For Instructions for an Ordinary Utopia, Ruth Proctor created a new motto for Frome, “Something Wonderful Will Happen”. A message of hope and aspiration offered to the town to adopt as it saw fit. Ruth worked with students of Frome Community College in 2014 to develop her commission. The message was used on banners and posters throughout the town and Kate Dixon, in Willow Vale, had the slogan carved on to stone and incorporated into her wall.

Mary Baily (1868- 1928) was born into the Baily brewing family which made her financially independent, but increasingly  involved herself in public and charitable works and church life at St John’s. Mary was elected as Vice-Chairman of the Frome Board of Guardians; had an interest in Victoria Hospital; the Nursing Association; Red Triangle Hut; Industrial Welfare Centre; governor at Frome County School and the first woman JP on the Frome Bench. Amongst her bequests was a piece of land near Somerset Road to be used as a recreation ground and now named in her honour.

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Historically, Millennium Green was used as both a quarry and for grazing horses. Since 2000, in the hands of the Frome Millennium Green Trust, the site has become a more natural area, home to lots of wildlife, a community orchard and one of the oldest trees in Frome. Commissioned by the Trust, the site also features a number of pieces produced by local artists, making this a distinct and characterful landscape in the town for people to enjoy.

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In the last months of 1918 Frome Urban District Council formed a committee to build a hall as an appropriate memorial to the fallen of World War 1. Over the next five years a design was agreed and money was raised, much of it from the residents of Frome. In September 1923 the site in Christchurch Street West was purchased and in April 1925 the Frome Memorial Hall was opened. During the 1930’s the number of seats was increased and it traded as the Grand Cinema until the late 1970’s. A campaign in the 1980’s involving Frome Amateur Operatic Society, Frome veterans associations and local residents saved the hall from redevelopment, with a new operating company to ensure the survival of the Memorial Theatre for the people of Frome.

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St Aldhelms Boys Home was founded in 1897 by the Waifs and Strays Society (later the Church of England Children’s Society) and was run by a master and a matron catering for boys aged 10 and 15. There was a strong link with Christ Church and the boys attended services on a Sunday. An end building housed the St Aldhelms Press where some boys were apprenticed as printers. The home continued until after World War 2 and later became an old people’s home before finally closing in 1991. It is now a residential block.

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Built in 1892 to provide aid to the poor, Frome Town Hall currently serves as the headquarters for the Town Council, championing community welfare and building a green and resilient town. Hosting the Frome Community Hub, it offers a wealth of resources at the front desk and participates in the safe spaces scheme.

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