FROME-SELWOOD, a market-town and parish in
the hundred of FROME, county of SOMERSET, 25 miles
(N. E.) from Ilchester, and 105 (W. byS.) from London,
containing 12,411 inhabitants. This place takes its
name from the river, called by the Saxons, Frau, now
Frome, which, passing by the town, runs into the Avon,
near Bristol; and its adjunct, from its situation in an
ancient and extensive forest, formerly infested with
hordes of banditti, whose depredations were a terror to
the surrounding neighbourhood, but from which they
were expelled, by cutting down large tracts of woodland,
and establishing small farms. A monastery
was founded here in 705, and dedicated to St. John
the Baptist, by Aldhelm, afterwards Bishop of Sherborne;
it was plundered in the Danish wars, and
the monks were dispersed, but the church continued
till the middle of the twelfth century; and the remains,
together with those of a chapel belonging to
a small nunnery dedicated to St. Catherine, have been
converted into tenements for the poor. The town is
pleasantly situated on the [north-east declivity of a
hill, in the ancient Forest of Selwood, and consists
chiefly of a great number of streets, irregularly built,
and inconveniently narrow, but from their situation
tolerably clean. A new opening through the town has
recently been made, forming a very handsome street,
with well built houses on each side. The buildings in
general are constructed of small rough stone, and roofed
with stone dug in the neighbourhood; the inhabitants
are well supplied with water, and the town has been
recently improved by the erection of a commodious
market-house and other buildings. Over the Frome,
which abounds with excellent trout and eels, is a neat
stone bridge of five arches; the environs are pleasant,
and contain some handsome seats. Frome has long
been celebrated for its woollen manufacture, of which
the principal articles are broad cloths and kerseymeres,
of very superior quality; the manufacture of wool-cards
is also carried on to a great extent, and formerly they
were supplied from this place to almost every town in
England. Frome has long been in great repute for the
excellent quality of its beer, which is kept to a great age.
The principal market is on Wednesday, and there is a
smaller one on Saturday; the fairs are on February 24th
and November 25thj for cattle and cheese. The county
magistrates hold here petty sessions for the division; and
a bailiff, two constables, and a tythingman for the towntything,
are chosen annually at the court leet of the
Earl of Cork and Orrery; a constable and a tythingman
for the West Woodlands are appointed at the court leet
of the Marquis of Bath; and a tythingman for the East
Woodlands is chosen at the hundred court at Frome.
The living is a vicarage, in the archdeaconry of
Wells, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the
king's books at £22, endowed with £ 1200 private benefaction,
and £1800 parliamentary grant, and in thepatronage
of the Marquis of Bath. The parochial churchdedicated
to St. Peter, is a spacious structure, consisting
of a nave, north and south aisles, chancel, and four sepulchral
chapels, with a square tower surmounted by
a spire, and a north and south porch; within it are
many handsome and interesting monuments. Christ
Church, erected in 1818, by subscription among
the inhabitants, is a handsome edifice in the later
style of English architecture, containing nine hundred
sittings, four hundred of which are free, the Incorporated
Society for the enlargement of churches
and chapels having granted £100 towards defraying
the expense; the living is a perpetual curacy, in th
patronage of the Vicar of Frome. In the Woodlands;
three miles south of the town, a church was erected
in 1712, by Thomas, Lord Viscount Weymouth, who
made the living a perpetual curacy, by endowing it
with £ 60 per annum, arising from an estate at Pennard,
in this county, to be paid to a minister appointed
by his successors in the estate of Longleat;
it is further endowed with £30 per annum, by the
will of the Hon. Henry Frederick Thynne, and also
with the clear profits of the estate of Codrington in
this parish. The church is a handsome edifice, with a
tower surmounted by an octagonal spire; the woodlands
which surround it are the only parts of the ancient
Forest of Selwood which exhibit any traces of their
former character. There are places of worship for Baptists,
the Society of Friends, Independents, Wesleyan
Methodists, and Presbyterians. The free grammar school
was founded in the reign of Edward VI., and is endowed
with £ 6 per annum, which, from time immemorial,
has been paid out of the Treasury, to which, £5 per
annum has been subsequently added, but all documents
relating to its foundation and further endowment
are lost: there are no scholars at present on the
foundation; the master takes private pupils, and the
premises consist only of a large school-room and
ante-room. A charity school, in which thirty-seven boys
are clothed and educated for four years, at the end of
which time they are apprenticed, is supported from
the funds of certain lands vested in twenty trustees.
Adjoining the 'school are almshouses for thirty-one
aged women, supported out of the same funds, which
produce an annual income of nearly £70, arising partly
from property given by the original founder, William
Leversedge, in the reign of Edward IV., and partly
from subsequent benefactions. In that part of the town
called Keyford is an asylum, founded in 1790, by
Robert Stevens, Esq., who endowed it with £12,000
four per cent. Bank annuities, for the maintenance
clothing, and education of forty girls, to be placed out
also in service, or as apprentices; and with £7000 in the
same funds, for the maintenance of twenty aged men,
natives of the parish; the annual income is at present
nearly £800: the premises form a handsome quadrangular
range of building commodiously arranged and
appropriated to both these purposes. A National school,
a capacious and handsome building, has been recently
erected by subscription, in which two hundred boys,
and one hundred and twenty-five girls, are at present
instructed.