page_title: Thomas Bunn, Frome
section_title: A public life
hierarchical_section_title: Thomas Bunn, Frome / A public life
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign marking boundary between Parish and Turnpike Trust responsibility in Christchurch Road East, Frome, Somerset, before 1888; across road, south-west of Plumbers Barton
context_page_description: Thomas Bunn, gentleman and philanthropist, was a man of independent means who devoted his energies to improving his native town of Frome. His epitaph in Christ Church aptly sums up his life:
  Note: The text on the plaque was written in block capitals. The quotation in the epitaph is a version in English of Samuel Johnson's epitaph on William Goldsmith: 'Nullum quod tetigit non ornavit'.
context_section_description: In 1797 he was one of the first to enrol in the Volunteer Corps of Infantry, in the rank of Captain; the purpose of the 120 Volunteers was "for the suppression of riots, within five miles of the town of Frome, or guard prisoners to the next town, or march to any part of the County of Somerset in case of actual invasion....".  Thomas Champneys was the Colonel-Commandant, whom Bunn will come across in a later decade.
  In 1810 £10,000 was raised for a parliamentary act which amended the rules of the Frome Turnpike Trust "for repairing Roads leading to and through the Town of Frome in the County of Somerset, and for paving the Footways and lighting the Streets within the said Town, and for removing Part of the present Market Place"  This had been championed by Thomas Bunn.   Prior to this the southern route out of town had been up Stony Street, turning left on to Palmer Street which then extended to the west front of the church of St John the Baptist, before turning up Gentle Street, a steep and constricted roundabout way, "narrow lanes which it was dangerous to pass when two carriages met". The new street involved the demolition of many tenements, including Anchor Barton and "such an accumulation of dung-heaps, slaughter-houses and tallow-melting houses as to be indescribable". The new wide carriageway modelled on Union Street, Bath established a new southern route running up from the Market Place.  From 1811 terraces of well-built houses were built on either side.  Some had classical pilasters which Bunn had insisted on.  In 1814 a new west front and forecourt arch were designed by George IV's later architect, Jeffry Wyatville.  Rook Lane Chapel was given a new frontage; it had previously been obscured by housing.  The new road, Bath Street was named after the Marquess of Bath who owned many properties in the town and who lived at Longleat; Bunn had the Marquess's coat of arms installed high up on the diagonal face of No 8, on the left of the church's entrance way.
  In 1821, just on the corner of his own street, then named Hill Street, and the Market Place, he persuaded the Earl of Cork & Orrery to be build an Assembly Room above a covered market, in the style of the Greek revival; in 1822, the street was renamed Cork Street.   The Earl, who had a house at Marston Bigot Park, was shown by Bunn an image of the Roman Forum as 'a good design for a modern market-place'; the Earl demurred and 'thought of economy and said it would not pay'.  Bunn's persuasion paid off; it remains one of Frome's notable buildings, now a bank with the ground floor enclosed.
  As a member of the Frome Turnpike Trust, "my object has always been to improve the whole", he pursued the widening of the road across the south of the town from Badcox to Wallbridge, "forming more convenient thoroughfares, to give an increased value to numerous buildings": today this is Christchurch Road West, the junction with his new Bath Street, Christchurch Road East and Portway.
  In a similar way, Bunn proposed other improvements to the town, looking to Bath and its neoclassical architecture for inspiration.  He wanted to see a great sweeping crescent of terrace houses 600 feet long on the hill above the town, a rival to Bath's Royal Crescent.  He had constructed four stone gate piers to mark the entrance; it was never built.  Only one which was part of his scheme stands in its original place along what had been called Behind Town and was known as Christchurch Road by 1830 after the church had been built in 1818.  Another has been re-erected further along the street, though not in its original position.  In 1822 on north side of Christchurch Road the South Parade was formed, cutting towards St Catherine's Hill; though it has some fine buildings and aligned with North Parade across the bridge to the north, it never became the striking thoroughfare he foresaw.
  In 1839 he encouraged his fellow trustees of the Frome Turnpike Trust to build a new bridge at Welshmill, putting in his own money to make sure the bridge was thirty feet wide as recommended by an surveyor rather than the
caption: Roadside sign marking boundary between Parish and Turnpike Trust responsibility in Christchurch Road East, Frome, Somerset
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