FROME  , a

market town in the Frome parliamentary division of Somersetshire, England, 107 m . W. by S. of London by the Great Western railway . Pop. of urban district (1901) 11,057 . It is unevenly built on high ground above the river Frome, which is here crossed by a stone bridge of five arches . It was formerly called Frome or Froome Selwood, after the neighbouring forest of Selwood; and the country round is still richly wooded and picturesque . The parish church of St John the Baptist, with its fine tower and spire, was built about the close of the 14th century, and, though largely restored, has a beautiful chancel, Lady chapel and baptistery . Fragments of Norman work are left; the interior is elaborately adorned with sculptures and stained glass . The market-hall, museum, school of art, and a free grammar school, founded under Edward VI., may be noted among buildings and institutions . The chief industries are brewing and art metal-working, also printing, metal-founding, and the manufacture of cloth, silk, tools and cards for wool-dressing . Dairy farming is largely practised in the neighbour-hood . Selwood forest was long a favourite haunt of brigands, and even in the 18th century gave shelter to a gang of coiners and highwaymen . The Saxon occupation of Frome (From) is the earliest of which there is evidence, the settlement being due to the foundation of a monastery by Aldhelm in 705 .

A witenagemot was held there in 934, so that Frome must already have been a

place of some size . At the time of the Domesday Survey the manor was owned by King William . Local tradition asserts that Frome was a medieval borough, and the reeve of Frome is occasionally mentioned in documents after the reign of Edward I., but there is no direct evidence that Frome was a borough and no trace of any charter granted to it . It was not represented in parliament until given one member by the Reform Act of 1832 . Separate representation ceased in 1885 . Frome was never incorporated . A charter of Henry VII. to Edmund Leversedge, then lord of the manor, granted the right to have fairs on the 22nd of July and the 21st of September . In the 18th century two other fairs on the 24th of February and the 25th of November were held . Cattle fairs are now held on the last Wednesday in February and November, and a cheese fair on the last Wednesday in September . The Wednesday market is held under the charter of Henry VII . There is also a Saturday cattle market . The manufacture of woollen cloth has been established since the 15th century, Frome being the only Somerset town in which this staple industry has flourished continuously .