My Last Year In Frome

A Memory of Frome.

I was born and raised in Frome, West End and then we moved to Green Lane.  We emigrated to Canada, I did not want to leave Frome at all. I still miss home!. The pretty streets and the steep hills. I can remember swimming in the river, and fishing in it. Every Wednesday going to the market after school to pet the animals. Mum used to buy us fish for dinner every Friday night at a fish shop on Cheap Street. Still to this day I swear it was the tastiest fish I have ever had. The long walk to school (Selwood Secondary) I would not go to Oakfield School (a stone's throw away from Green Lane), I really still do not know why I was so against that school. Boy, the walk was a long way up and down hills, down Bath Street, down Weymouth Hill and all the way up them again after school! The market place, I worked at Boot's the chemist after school and on weekends. I loved it. My friends and I never felt unsafe walking around town to go to dances. When I did go back to Frome after 15 years went by, I did not reconize Frome at all!. My father has been back more than I have, he was there last year. He said I would get totally lost if I was dropped off down town!The house on West End has been torn down, I even shed a few tears over that. I can still vision my room in that house with 1003 bunches of pink roses on the 4 walls surrounding my bed. The noisy hedgehogs across the road from our house in the spring. The river I used to fish in with the boys in the neighbourhood. There was a shortage of girls. I played with the boys and kept up with them also!! Riding bikes down Welsh Hill ( it has been a few years, I think it had another name), and the corner at the bottom of the hill!. Oh my, it is a wonder I have these memories! My grandfather worked at the train station, every once in a while, if pocket money would allow, Jane and I would skip out of school and run to the station in the morning to get the train to Weston-super-Mare for the day. My grandfather never did leak the big secret to my parents! Both my parents worked and used to get home at 5:00pm, so long as I had the potatoes peeled and in the pot, and my school uniform put back on, they were non the wiser! Where else could you do this. Frome had a train station, and buses. Where I live now, we have no such things like Frome has had. We were so close to Bath or even Bristol. Frome was surrounded with beautiful countryside. Long walks or bike rides on a Sunday, biking to Longleat. I can remember being in Longleat when the Rolling Stones had a concert there. I can remember a concert of some sorts where there was Hippies coming out of the wood work walking through Frome on their way to Shepton Mallet. I can remeber Gypsy Lane, my mother telling me to stay away from there. Of course as a rebelious child I had to go there just to see if I could find some Gypsies. ha ha. If if if, I could go on. I wonder what I would be doing if I still lived in Frome, I wonder if I would have left Frome, all I know is I still miss Frome.

Heather McFadden, nee Penny

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