William Pearce

It was 5am and William Pearce was already awake stoking the oven of the bakery preparing the daily bread for his customers. There would be a queue at the door at 8am and the loaves would be laid out on the shelves still warm and the familiar smell of newly baked bread would fill the air.

When the cold storage business closed down in 2015 he and many others had had to retrain and he had chosen to be a baker. Since the opening of a number of wood fired ovens around the town in the past couple of years, with wood sourced from sustainable coppiced willow forests of the wetlands, he had become an apprentice and, for the first time in his life, had learned a trade.

Frome had changed immeasurably since he was born in 1985, the energy crisis, massive unemployment, the changing climate which had led to food shortages and riots across the country and the slow readjustment to a more sustainable way of life. It hadn’t been easy but he was a Frome man, and Frome people had a reputation for being adaptable, and resilient. Although in Frome’s history there had been setbacks, as in the decline of the cloth industry in the early 19th century, new industries had sprung up leading to diversification of the towns industrial economy and other ways of earning a living had been created. And so it was now. Indeed many of the successful industries drew on the achievements and skills of the past. There were iron founders, metal workers, printers, blacksmiths, engineers....Frome’s people were skilled in the past and this was happening all over again.

Water once again became a source of energy as it had been in the early days of Frome’s history when watermills were used for grinding flour and as part of the cloth making process. Now more sophisticated computer co-ordinated systems were in place but the river was once again a valued resource in the town. And now there was respect and love for the river – the annual water carnival was a sight to see; an extraordinary display of inventive vessels of all kinds. Neighbourhoods would come together to share tools, ideas and skills to design their unique vessel to enter the event. Building on the tradition of the illuminated carnival floats of the past, these water borne floats used fire instead of lightbulbs and the flames that lit up the river as the crowds looked on were equally if not more thrilling to behold.

As in years gone by when Frome was a market town, it became a centre for the purchase of locally produced goods and foods. The revival of St Catherine’s Fair in November and the Orange fair in February were highlights of the year for local people and others would come from far beyond the district for what some said were the liveliest and most colourful fairs you could find in the west country. The centre of town would close to traffic for the day, children would have a day off school, the street bands would play and as well as stalls selling local wares of all kinds, there would be entertainment and feasting. The fairs were, above all, a social occasion and a holiday atmosphere was always present.

Frome was also famed for its arts and crafts, pottery, stonework, woodcarving as well as paintings – some of Frome’s graffiti art was the talk of the region!
William Pearce pondered on all this as he slid the loaves out of the oven and onto racks and saw the first customers arriving, some of them bearing their own cake dough and other dishes that he would slip in the oven to make the most of the remaining hot embers...to be collected later in the day.

Some townspeople liked to arrive early to catch up with their neighbours about the previous day or make arrangements for sharing childminding or looking after an elderly neighbour, planning a communal meal or simply for the satisfaction of a neighbourly chat.

William was ready; he made his way to the door with a smile to welcome his customers.

This tale came from Annabelle Macfadyen.