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Wesleyan Methodism in Frome Somersetshire, wriiten by Stephen Tuck in 1837, relates how ‘in the year 1746 or 1747, a Methodist preacher for the first time visited the town of Frome, and preached in the open air, in an orchard behind the Pack Horse Inn. Two houses were then used for meetings before a chapel was built in 1779. This became inadequate for the size of the congregation and it was decided to demolish it and build a larger chapel on the same site. The foundation stone was laid on 18 October 1810 and the chapel was opened on 14 May 1812. There were periodic bouts of dissention. In the early years this concerned disputes between ‘Calvinist’ and ‘Arminian’ factions and some people were expelled and others left to form their own church. A restoration occurred in 1871.
The building has been designated Grade II by Historic England.
The informal register (see below) indicates that burials occurred inside and outside the chapel. There are four groups of memorials within the site:
Limitations
Records after 1860 are limited to names on surviving memorials.
At Somerset Heritage Centre:
The register is not a statutory one but a blank book with for each handwritten entry: a number, name, age, date and remarks. The numbers start at 1 in 1812 and ascend to 1089 in 1860. The forenames often use a short-form. Ages aren’t always present and for years at a time limited to a fraction of the entries. Children are usually referred to without a forename but by reference to a parent such as ‘Child of Mrs Heal’ or ‘Walter Gregory’s child’. The majority of the remarks indicate burial in a vault either inside or outside the chapel. By an entry in 1860 is the annotation ‘This is No 169 in current Frome Wesley Burial Reg. Hunt 8-7-72’ and, in the margin, ‘Here ends the copy taken from the book of Mr Tuck by S. T. Prior and his son.
If you wish to view and search burials within this cemetery, please visit the Bath Burial Index search page.
