Coordinates: 51°13′40″N 2°19′17″W / 51.2279°N 2.3215°W / 51.2279; -2.3215

Frome (ⁱ/ˈfruːm/ FROOM; Welsh: Ffraw) is a town and civil parish in eastern Somerset, England. Located at the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, the town is built on uneven high ground, and centres on the River Frome. The town is approximately 13 miles (21 km) south of Bath, 43 miles (69 km) east of the county town, Taunton and 107 miles (172 km) west of London. In the 2011 census, the population was given as 26,203. The town is in the Mendip district of Somerset and is part of the parliamentary constituency of Somerton and Frome.

In April 2010 a large hoard of third-century Roman coins was unearthed in a field near the town. From AD 950 to 1650, Frome was larger than Bath and originally grew due to the wool and cloth industry. It later diversified into metal-working and printing, although these have declined. The town was enlarged during the 20th century but still retains a very large number of listed buildings, and most of the centre falls within a conservation area.

Frome was a constituency centred on the town of Frome in Somerset. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832, until it was abolished for the 1950 general election. Between 1832 and 1885, it was a parliamentary borough; after 1885 it was a county constituency, a division of Somerset.

History

Frome was one of the boroughs created by the Great Reform Act of 1832, as the town was at that point one of the bigger towns in England which was not already represented, and its then-flourishing woollen manufacturing industry made it seem likely to grow further. The new borough consisted only of the town of Frome, and had a population (according to the 1831 census) of approximately 11,240. The registered electorate at the 1832 election was 322. Frome was near to Longleat, and the Marquess of Bath was influential in election outcomes throughout its life as a borough.

However, the town did not increase dramatically in size in the next few years, and the electorate was still only just over 400 by 1865, although the extension of the franchise at the 1868 election trebled this. By the time of the Third Reform Act, Frome was too small to continue as a constituency in itself and the borough was abolished with effect from the 1885 election.

The Hundred of Frome is one of the 40 historical Hundreds in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England, dating from before the Norman conquest during the Anglo-Saxon era although exact dates are unknown. Each hundred had a 'fyrd', which acted as the local defence force and a court which was responsible for the maintenance of the frankpledge system. They also formed a unit for the collection of taxes. The role of the hundred court was described in the Dooms (laws) of King Edgar. The name of the hundred was normally that of its meeting-place.

The Hundred of Frome was the largest hundred in the county and had its headquarters in the town of Frome. It consisted of the ancient parishes of: Frome-Selwood, and the parishes of Beckington, Berkeley, Cloford, East Cranmore, Elm, Laverton, Leigh, Luddington, Marston Bigott, Mells, Nunney, Orchardleigh, Road, Rodden, Standerwick, Wanstrow, Whatley, Witham Friary, and Woolverton. It covered an area of 37,620 acres (15,220 ha).

The importance of the hundred courts declined from the seventeenth century. By the 19th century several different single-purpose subdivisions of counties, such as poor law unions, sanitary districts, and highway districts sprang up, filling the administrative role previously played by parishes and hundreds. Although the Hundreds have never been formally abolished, their functions ended with the establishment of county courts in 1867 and the introduction of districts by the Local Government Act 1894.