Frome in Wessex
HELLO from Frome, the Heart of Wessex!
Abstract
Contents Updated: Saturday, 17 November 2012
Frome Gaza Demonstration
Frome Friends of Palestine demonstrated outside the Oxfam shop on Saturday 17 November at 11.00 am alongside members of Frome Stop The War in protest at the latest Israeli attack on Gaza.
Some people were puzzled that anyone can support the Palestinians, because they are always presented as an Arab Goliath facing an Israeli David, but the truth is the reverse. The Israelis are the Goliath! Although they are only a small state, the Palestinians have even less territory, the Israelis having driven the Palestinians from their land, the land they had lived in for thirty or more centuries—the land taken from them by the Israelis. The ancestors of the Palestinians are likely to be the people who lived in the same place when Christ was there, give or take the immigration and emigration that has happened over 2000 years.
The Israelis are a modern technological country supplied with vast quantities of money and arms from the USA, but the Palestinians are not allowed to import anything without Israeli permission, and are deliberately kept third world. When they try to bring anything in from outside by sea—Gaza is on the coast—the Israelis pirate the merchant ships bringing in goods, illegally blockading Gazan waters. You must have seen it in the media. Gaza is, you see, not an independent state at all—that is what the Palestinians want—but it is effectively an Arab ghetto of Israel. All complaints against Israel are suppressed by the USA. The UN Human Rights Council has adopted more resolutions condemning Israel than it has all other states combined. From 1967 to 1989 the UN Security Council adopted 131 resolutions directly addressing Israeli deprivation of the rights of the Palestinians.
So Israel has all the power, the money, the modern weapons. The BBC and Sky make a lot of noise about the Gazans having crude Qassam rockets which they fire into Israel in retaliation for oppression by the Israelis, but these rockets are not guided and not accurate, not reliable and of limited range, being home made. The Israelis, as in this case where they killed the Hamas official whom they were negotiating with about a captured IDF soldier, create provocations to break truce agreements, then blame the Arabs, who, having no professional army, no modern weapons, no airforce unlike Israel’s sophisticated one, and no money, necessarily come off worse.
Why do it? To get more aid and support from the USA, and to create a scare to be able to act tough just before an election, as in this case!
Who then in terms of power is the Goliath? It is Israel backed by the USA. To help the Palestinians peacefully, you can:
- support Frome Friends of Palestine on Facebook
- get fairer reporting of the bombing and atacking of Gaza by the IDF (the Israeli Defence Force, Israel’s modern military) at Freeview 083 and 085, Al Jazeera and Russia Today, westernized TV channels that are not so cringingly pro-Israel
- read more at the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
- in case you think we are only anti-Israeli, we also support Stop the War which campaigns against all wars, emphasizing the curerent ones.
Lastly, it is important to realise that the Israelis are not equivalent to Jews. Many Jews, many even in Israel, do not support the actions of the Israeli government. Israel was set up as a consequence of a secular political ideology called Zionism. The most strongly devout religious Jews oppose Zionism, and consider Zionist land grabbing from the Palestinians to be a grave religious error, contrary to God’s will. Besides the Palestinians, we support these Jews who are also friends of the Palestinians.
Articles
- “A Town Saved by Neglect” and a Map of places of Interest near Frome
- Map of the Frome Area.
- The Frome Web! Points of Contact and a list of Frome links.
People/Places
- Scenes and People
- The crucifixion at St John’s Church, Frome
- Annual Events in Frome’s Calendar
- Old Calendar of Events in Frome.
- Take a short guided tour walking around the centre of Frome.
- Harvest Moon: BBC on location in Frome for mid 19th century period drama.
- The Dreadful Murder at Rode.
- Mary Hill afflicted by witches at Beckington
- Frome Home and Away.
- Frome Rotary Club publishes a celebration of Frome for its 70th anniversary.
- Traditional Cider
- The Apple Tree
- Ancient Oaks
- Exotic animals in the Frome area from Marcus Matthews
Frome—Home of Jensen Button
History
- Some Pre-Roman Sites near Frome
- Some Roman remains near Frome
- St Aldhelm: Founder of the Town of Frome.
- Nunney and Nunney Castle
- The Awful History of Farleigh Hungerford Castle
- Old murals found at Norton St Philip and Samuel Pepys in “Phillip’s Norton” in 1668.
- Monmouth’s Rebellion
- The Short Commercial History of Frome.
- John Frapwell relates the history of the Singer factory.
- Frome’s Mystery Tunnels.
- And Mystery Tunnels at nearby Shepton Mallet.
- Midsomer Norton, a near neighbour of Frome.
- Bath, Frome’s illustrious neighbour
- Wells, Frome’s neighbouring Cathedral City
- Frome writer Crysse’s adventures
Fascinating places to go for a day out from Frome. Note that the information given here is unlikely to be up to date so CHECK CHECK CHECK with the attraction before you visit
- Bradford on Avon—Saxon Church
- Longleat House
- Avebury Stone Circle
- Stourhead House and Gardens
- Salisbury Cathedral
- Wilton House
- Wookey Hole
- Sherborne Castle
- Fleet Arm Arm Museum
- Abbotsbury Swannery
- Athelhampton House
- Forde Abbey and Gardens
- Perry’s Cider
- Tank Museum
- Map: English Heritage Wessex
- Map: National Trust Wessex
- Back to Articles on Frome start
Here are three excellent pictures from the AA Interactive Britain and Ireland CD ROM, a “must have” for anyone interested in our little islands.
- King Street Frome from the church steps showing the Three Swans Inn
- The Blue House Frome
- Rook Street Chapel Frome showing the 1707 date stone
Galleries
- Some Random Images and Frome Carnival Pics
- Same pictures as a slideshow
- Impressionistic Frome
- Wessex Gallery
- Cornish Gallery
- SupplementArt Gallery: Mike’s paintings
Batcombe Vale, just a few miles from Frome to the South West
Frome Expatriots E-mail Booth
Send us e-mail with your comments, experiences or interests in Frome. Former Fromies can e-mail to let us know how they are going on and leave an e-mail address here.
Carey M Vigor MD writes: I am seeking a family by the name of Vigor. My grandfather’s grandfather wrote in a family journal that he was born in Frome, Somersetshire, in 1820. He married Joanna Cary in Mendham NJ in 1840 and was the first doctor in Ohio. He wrote that his mother’s family were weavers, originally nee Lawrence from France. The Mormons give the history as St Gauguin de Vigeur> Nonetheless, would love to hear from anyone who might be related.
Geoff Swaine writes: My family had a tailoring business on The Bridge for nearly a hundred years. My grandfather (J F Swaine) was the last encumbant of the business which closed in 1936. He was a councillor and also a member of the volunteer Fire Brigade before the first World War. My father (Bill Swaine) was brought up in Frome and went to School at Sexeys in Bruton. He left Frome to make his career in the City of London where he met my mother. He was in the RAF during the war and I was born in 1942. We came to Frome for the war years and lived at Conigre House. After that I visited Frome for every Easter and Summer holiday until my grandfather died in 1962. He still lived on The Bridge at number 5 and this is where I stayed.
I have now written a book called Onto The Bridge and this is to be published next year. It is about my life in Frome during the forties and fifties, and also chronicles life in the times of my father in the town. (He is still going strong). Another section follows the history of the Frome woollen industry.
I have written a book called Up the Line about steam railways. It is available at discount, £9.99 at Good Buys in Bath. See you next year. See my review on Amazon.
Chris Butler writes: I am trying to find any living descendants or the closest living descendants of Robert Edmund Dickinson born 1862 or 1863, son of Edmund Henry Dickinson of Berkeley House in Frome. Edmund Henry was second son of William Dickinson MP of Kingweston. Robert died 16 November 1947. He was the MP for Wells between 1899 and 1906. Also there seems to be some connection between the Dickinsons and Kingweston House, later to become part of Millfield School. It would be helpful to know if there was a link between Robert and Kingweston House. Any help or guidance would be helpful.
Roland Sheppard’s family is from the Frome, Somerset area. There was a story that the family owned a mill of some sort and since there was a place called Sheppard’s Barton he would like to find more information on this area especially the Sheppard family that lived there. His 2nd great grandfather was Thomas R Sheppard born in 1820, England. Thomas had a son called James D Sheppard who might have been named after a uncle by the same name born Jan 16 1798 in Frome, Somerset, England. This James had a brother named George that came to America with him in 1827 to Buffalo, NY. Can anyone help?
Trevor Ledbury is feeling hot in the USA where it’s 100 degrees outside. Trevor left Frome about five years ago but still has family here.
On this site, 23 August 1998
While there are excellent special interest Frome sites like Bill Hockton’s News Site, as far as we know we are the only up-and-running website devoted to the town. Vague proposals for “professionally produced” sites can be made forever but professionals have to maintain their Porsches. Even if they only run Polos, sooner or later someone has to stump up their bill. This site has been constructed at no cost to anyone except ourselves.
This note now seems strangely prescient. Bill Hockton has retired and his shop and website closed, but instead the town now has a plethora of professionally designed sites, which do look good, as they ought, but how much has it cost the public purse? How much is it costing? AW! has had a circular offering us grants totalling £2000 to go online, but as we have been here since the mid 90s presumably we are not eligible. We hear web designers earn £35000 a year. Ten years ago, a hundredth of that would have been helpful. Politicians give away public money too easily when it is too late to be useful to help the innovators.
