jkbrit1031

Hi all - Will be moving back to UK to retire after living in USA for close to 30 years. After looking at forums etc I have narrowed down and really like the look of Frome in Somerset. Do any of you have experience in this area you can share? I will be on my own and have yet to visit in person although will be doing that soon. Any advice or tidbits welcome. Mostly concerned with community, access to doctors/dentists, good produce/shops and public transportation options. Thanks in advance.

ianandhelena

Here's some mapped data about Frome, but it dates back to 2019: https://mapmaker.cdrc.ac.uk/#/index-...394&zoom=12.15

Helen1964

Try entering Googling “Frome” and “Mumsnet”.
Admittedly much of the info will be from a parent’s perspective (availability of schools, etc) but you’ll get an idea of what the general vibe of the town is like.

If you’re looking for a project, you could set up an equivalent of Mumsnet for retired people. It would be a huge hit. I did check Silversurfers but it doesn’t have much for people living in the UK.

jkbrit1031

Thanks for the tip re Mumsnet!!! Wow yes great idea for an equivalent for retirees!

Pollyana

My mum was born there, grew up there, and moved back there for a while in the late 80s. I spent a lot of time there as a kid. Its a typical market town, lots of old buildings, many houses are listed buildings so be careful if buying one. Newer ones on the outskirts, traditional shops in the centre, but I think there are now out-of-town centres too. Thriving craft & food market held monthly. Lots of old pubs too.

There is a station there, though not hugely blessed with trains. Used to be plenty of buses but not so sure now.

My Gran was a holy terror working in the local Health Centre, but that was back in the 70s

If you are after somewhere peaceful and still fairly countrified, Frome could be it 🙂

Pollyana

https://www.fromebus.co.uk

and

https://www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk/...ity/transport/

might help 🙂

SarahBC

Hi,

I was prompted by your post to research Frome. Coming from the cosmopolitan metropolis of Swindon, Wiltshire, I regarded Frome as an inaccessible non entity. I have been gone a long time (18 years in the Dominion of Canada - we’re just about approaching 1981).

However, seems things have changed since I left. Frome is now trendy. I found a delightful review on an Let’s Move to Frome article:

”Like so many other satellite towns, Frome has become afflicted by poncification. Gangs of men casually attired in tweed suits with knee-high woolen socks and walking boots roam the town, sporting their waxed beards and moustaches and smoking foul roll-ups from nasty little tins. Trilby-hatted men carrying bodhrans and mandolins make their way to the pop-up markets, boutiques, artisan shops and delicatessens of Catherine Hill and (the ironically named) Cheap Street to buy their couscous or quinoa or sweet potato pancakes.All to be washed down with craft beer or Fairtrade Americanos, naturally.

Frome's reinvention means that 'Hipster Town' is filthy with IT Consultants dressed as cattle drovers; heavily tattooed 'digital creatives' with rolled up sleeves on their. buttoned-down plaid shirts and dungarees; Doulas in their 1950s printed frocks. Bountiful mothers in oversized cardigans and Buddy Holly glasses clasp their Sylvia Plath novels and push their achingly-cool retro perambulators. They wear these uniforms to show their uniqueness, you know?

Everyone seems to be accessorised with a frou frou toy dog that needs to be walked ostentatiously. They are everywhere, like rats. Worst of all there are the 'folk musicians' who carry the ominous and ever-present threat of a flash-mob Ceilidh breaking out. Just ordinary folk living a simpler life before decamping to Babington House for the night.

In the Artisan Quarter, entire shops are dedicated to scented candles, recycled linen or old suitcases up-cycled as occasional tables. Shop windows heave with skip-rescued shabby chic chests of drawers and Son-et-Lumiere paraphernalia. Everything has been gilded and aged, including the cushions. All music comes on a new cutting-edge format called vinyl. When the local barber asks you if you want something for the weekend, he's probably talking about beard oil. One a month, The Frome Independent Market summons the nations trebdies to the mothership.

Inner needs are well-catered for too. Cafe's and restaurants have been replced by delis and diners. Emporia with names such as Food and Sons or Zeppelin & Kite or Encomium compete to offer you a hand-crafted designer vegan sandwich for a more than reasonable £8.50. You know that quality is assured because time has been taken choosing the right Victorian typeface on the shop sign. The smell of sesame seed baps, guacamole, sourdough and wasabi peas lingers in the air. Something called kale is universal. Caramel, of course. must be salted.

In the bistros, all foodstuffs are served on roof tiles or table tennis bats or in a bucket, except Shepherds pie, which is served in a beer glass. Drinks come in 'mason jars' - so much more suited to the task that mundate relics like glasses. There are no plates, and none of the furniture matches, or is at the same height. The retro cool sounds of Cajun music, bluegrass or Thelonious Monk waft through the air. Jazz cafes filled with Trust-fund managers visiting their second homes in the provinces.

Hopefully Caitlin and Sebastian and Jasper and Jocasta can be compelled to leave their alfresco street cafes and tranquility havens and clamber back onto their space-hoppers or penny farthings or into their 2CVs and leave their converted windmills. bijou miner's cottages or former blacksmiths forges and Frome can once again return to the normality of public drunkenness and hand-to-hand street fighting that made it the proud working-class hovel it once was. At least when the roads of Frome were closed back then it was for necessary police action and not a street 'fayre' or an artisan flea market or for bearded men in Arran jumpers to ride wobbly boneshakers up a cobbled hill.

There is another Frome of course; the Frome of bad buses, and Lidl and roadworks and Subway and KFC. The Frome of double-yellow line parkers and a town centre permanently accessorised by two parked buses. Of the hell of Mendip District Council, and expensive parking and the 17th century road system, but the Grauniad doesn't want to write about that, I'll bet”.

Sounds marvellous!

Sarah

Helen1964

Brilliant article!

If you want something with a hippy vibe but slightly less poncy, you could try the People’s Republic of Stroud.

brits1

Hi we have been a few times when visiting our son in Bristol, it’s a very nice part of the world with lots of lovely old buildings, it’s near to Bath as well which is just a lovely city (Bristol is very good as well) you can take the train to Bristol and from there to visit Cardiff and also the opposite direction to Weymouth which is also lovely. You can catch a bus to Wells which is a very nice city and has a wonderful cathedral, so while you are surrounded by countryside and while there are no motorways close by you are still very excess-able to other places very easily. Good luck and wish you well

Pulaski

I could think of many places (small towns or large villages) in south Gloucestershire that could be pleasant to live in; Stroud would _not_ be one of them.

Helen1964

Oh dear. What's wrong with it? I met a couple from Stroud on the train from Tbilisi to Kutaisi in Georgia and they were very enthusiastic about it.

Pulaski

It's a bizarre outpost of post-industrial, urban inner city decay, with a significant drug problem. I suspect that the couple you met lived on the fringes, or a satellite village, and not actually in Stroud. ... I have a friend who lives in Ruscombe - its lovely, with views across the Severn valley, Stroud is just a place to go shopping.

Helen1964

OK, good to know. Another illusion bites the dust. I used to think Samarkand sounded magical until I actually went there.