If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 595

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frome, Somerset, England, ca 1942

 

This unused “Photo Brown” postcard published by Valentine & Sons Ltd. Dundee and London, has multiple views of Frome.  This type of multi-view card is still popular today.  Looking closely at the picture identified as Market Place, upper right corner, one can see vehicles that appear to date from the 1920s.  However, it is possible to date this card as a World War II card published no earlier than 1942 because it has a quote from British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill on the reverse.  Several British postcards issued during the war years had various quotes by Churchill.  This quote:  “Let us all strive without failing in faith or in duty.” Was from a speech delivered in 1940.  Cards bearing Churchill quotes began to be distributed in 1942. 

 

The card has the number G2325 at the lower right corner on the front.  Each inset is identified beginning at the top left:  Adderwell; center:  Nunney Castle and Parish Church; upper right:  Market Place; lower right:  St John the Baptist church Via Crucis – Way of the Cross; lower left:  Willow Vale. 

 

High Altar, St John the Baptist Church, Frome, England

 

This second unused postcard has the handwritten title “St John Baptist, Frome – The High Altar” at the lower left and R.S. Ashby. Frome, at the lower right on the front of the card.  It features a black & white picture of the beautiful and magnificently decorated high altar in the church.  No publisher or distributor or other information is found on either side of the postcard. 

 

Frome is a town in eastern Somerset, England about 13 miles south of Bath.  The town was built on high ground near the Mendip Hills and centers on the River Frome.  People have lived communally here since ancient days.  The Romans built a road just south of Frome that connected what is now Salisbury, Southhampton and Hamworthy near Poole.  It is thought that this was to facilitate export trade of silver and lead from the mines in the Mendips.  A huge cache of over 50,000 Roman coins found in a in a jar in a field near Frome in 2010 were excavated by archaeologists and some are on display in the British Museum. 

 

At one time Frome was one of the largest towns in Somerset.  In the late 1400s and early to mid 1500s the manufacture of woolen cloth was the principal industry.  Later other associated crafts, such as wool dyeing; fellmongering, the removal of animal hair to make leather out of hides; spinning, and weaving, employed almost half the heads of households.  The industrial revolution brought mechanization, needed less skilled workers, and caused a downturn in trade ending in the closure of many mills since lighter cloth could be produced cheaper elsewhere.  Industry diversified into metal working and printing, although these have also declined.  Many of the buildings are listed as historical.  “In 2014 it was named by The Times as the “sixth coolest town” in Britain.” (Wikipedia.org).  Frome has also been listed as among the 15 best places for weekend breaks from London.

 

For additional information, see:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frome

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_St_John_the_Baptist,_Frome