Frome Voices: stories from a shared waterway

Frome Voices is a three-part audio soundscape celebrating Bristol’s second river, the river Frome. This episode brings together the many communities who know and love the river including:

Rich Scantlebury, Bird Watcher and Photographer

Geoff Wallace, Bristol Industrial Archaeology Society (BIAS)

John Rosewell, Local Historian.

Jean Davidge, Coordinator Snuff Mills Community Garden

Peter Coleman-Smith, Bristol Avon Rivers Trust Trustee, angler and botanist

Plus some of the people who just love to walk along the river.

Frome Voices Series

The other two elements in the series are

Frome Voices: a river soundscape and poem
Frome Voices: a self-guided walk from Frenchay Bridge to the Arnolfini

It is part of Bristol City Council’s Cultural Conversations Grant

Thanks to Bristol City Council and Friends of Eastville Park for supporting the project.

The Bristol Frome

The river rises just north of the M4 and runs under the A46 to appear in the Dodington Park Estate in South Gloucestershire. It then flows through beautiful countryside, towns and villages including the medieval town of Chipping Sodbury. It passes beneath the 11-arched spectacular Winterbourne Viaduct, carrying the London to South Wales main line and on past Frampton Cotterell to starts its urban section. It then winds under the M4 and the ring road, past the landscaped Oldbury Court estate, originally an old hunting lodge within the Royal Forest of Kingswood and on to Snuff Mills.

Snuff Mills will reward you with its beautiful garden created and tended by volunteers before the river reaches Eastville Park Lake. It then begins its final section some of which is now culverted underground until finally it emerges in central Bristol at Cascade Steps to flow out into the harbour at the Arnolfini.

Historically, the river supported mills, tanneries, and other small industries, while much of its urban route has been modified for flood management. The Frome Valley Walkway takes you all the way along its 20 miles, joining together two long distance trails, the Cotswold Way and the River Avon Trail.

Links

Bristol Avon rivers Trust (BART) - www.bristolavonriverstrust.org

Bristol City Council Cultural Conversations funding

Bristol Industrial Archaeology Society - www.b-i-a-s.org.uk

Friends of Eastville Park - www.facebook.com/groups/107934965930710

Frome Valley Walkway leaflet - www.fromewalkway.org.uk/frome_valley_booklet.pdf

Snuff Mills Action Group - www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064666570279

The Big Blue Map of Bristol - www.bristol.gov.uk/files/documents/791-big-blue-map-of-bristol/file

Thanks also to

Andy Gee, Friends of Eastville Park

Mo Lewis, Friends of Eastville Park

Credits