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view from above of Market Yard

Share your ideas for Market Yard

Frome's Market Yard is more than a car park. It's the home of many markets, and often the place people arrive in when they visit the town centre. The riverside area is surrounded by places that are important to our town's culture and community: Frome Library, the Cheese and Grain, Canoe Club, Black Swan Arts and Frome Museum.

We want to revitalise Market Yard, creating an attractive gateway to the fantastic independent businesses in the town centre, and a vibrant and welcoming space in its own right.

We're welcoming your ideas for Market Yard - no matter how big or small.

You might have ideas for:

Brand new buildings or other structures
Rethinking and improving existing features
Events and activities
Improvements that would make walking, cycling and parking safer and more pleasant
Ways to connect the space with nature, town centre businesses or the cultural spaces around it
Ways to make it a better arrival destination for visitors
Things you would like to see in the library, Cheese and Grain, Canoe Club, Museum or Black Swan Arts
...or anything else

All ideas are welcome.

13 days left

Phases

Phases overview

Share your ideas

Share your ideas

19 February 2026 - 30 April 2026

Add as many or as few ideas as you wish and take a look at what other people have suggested. You can like or comment on other people's ideas too.

Please submit each idea you have separately, rather than as one post.

We want to encourage people to be as imaginative as possible - don't worry if your idea seems expensive or unconventional. It's also OK if your idea is more general, for example wanting more creative things to do in the space but not being sure what.

The ideas you share will inform how we move forward with plans to revitalise Market Yard.

25 ideas

ANDREW BELL1 week ago

Mike John2 months ago To help with revitalising the market yard and assist the regular weekly markets maybe the town could make the area near the bridge to the west way into more of a park, thereby encouraging people to come there for a lunchtime break. The riverside could and should look more inviting. Trees and raised flower beds would be nice. The markets could easily work around this. A focal point would be nice, like a bandstand

hugh thomas2 months ago Similar to the work undertaken at Boyle Cross over the years, beutifying the market yard area in a way that reflects it as a town centre asset. This could be planters, growing spaces, scupltures, trees, cobbling an area of the car park, outdoor art or street art (continuing on from the colourisation of Westway), in order to make the market yard a more attractive place to hang out and host a market. The beutification of boyle cross has done wonders in helping the farmers' market feel vibrant, and a place people want to be, which has helped with loiter times and an appreciation for the space in general. I feel like there is potential for the market yard to feel like a town plaza or market square (as is more common on the continent) and help rejuvenate the weekly markets, if not help encourage others during the week as well.

Malcolm Parker1 month ago Over centuries, the course of the river through the town centre has been narrowed, lined and straightened. Historically, it was more sinuous and what is now Henley Way was once an island. This regimented legacy of Frome's industrial past has speeded the river's flow, raised it's banks, reduced it's capacity and almost certainly made it much less hospitable to wildlife. The current high, steep banks offer little to detain or engage the visitor and promote a bland, utilitarian perspective on what could and should be one of the towns greatest assets. Chateau Gontier Walk is rarely seen as a place to linger and with the current pinch point under the railway bridge, Welshmill woods could almost be in another town. Our own canoe club has little variety for it's paddlers and the EA watercraft launching site lacks a challenge. It would take a lot of work to plan a safe, nature and visitor friendly rekindling of this critical section, but rewiggling the river could reduce the height and increase the length of the banks, improve access under the railway bridge and is commensurate with the ideas already put forward of a river scoop and improving river access, making the river much more of an asset than an encumbrance and helping to bring nature closer to our town's heart. If it was done in conjuction with some minor changes to encourage the use of the former livestock railway access ramp to the east of the Cheese and Grain, it could even be carried out with the loss of very few car park spaces overall.

Rachel 1 month ago

Mike John2 months ago The toilets in the market yard have been closed for ages and I know the council is currently paying the cheese and grain 15k a year so more public can use theirs. Public toilets are a vital amenity for the market yard which hosts regular twice weekly markets. The councils estimates of circa 200k to refurbished the toilet block seems extreme. Maybe the CIC company that runs the monthly independent market could chip in. After all they do have some 10k visitors each month and lots of them use the loo. Maybe that overuse has added to the wear and tear which has caused the closure. CIC stands for community interest company. These toilets are definitely of interest to the community. I am sure there are many commercial plumbing companies out there who could come up with a much more sensible quote than £200k. There are only 4 cubicles and a urinals after all and the building itself seems sound.

Isabelle Tucker1 week ago

Andy Nicholson2 months ago

Richard Swann1 month ago A few years ago there was a scheme to create a better connection between the town and the canalised river, creating a ramp and steps down to the river between the Westway bridge and Button bridge, to form an amphitheatre with a deck at river level. It even had Environment Agency approval, and only loses about 6 parking spaces as this area is so badly planned at the moment. As it's south facing, it would make a great area for people to sit for a snack, gather for performances, or for short river boat trips to Saxonvale! It would make a great green lung to counterbalance the sea of tarmac in the carpark.

Hannah Hart2 months ago

Joel Baxter2 months ago

Julian Quail1 month ago

Jenny King1 week ago

Malwina Kowejsza1 week ago

Chris Barnett1 week ago

Martin Joyce1 week ago As a local resident opposite the riverside, I really appreciate the work the town council have done over the last year to clean up Chateau Gontier Walk and make it a more appealing space (new planters, new bin etc).However, we still get problems (especially in the Summer months) with certain types using the benches for drinking, drug-taking / dealing, playing loud aggressive music from increasingly large Bluetooth speakers, and leaving piles of empty cans and bottle all over the river bank. And with the removal of the toilets in market yard, they often relive themselves among the trees and flowerbeds.Last summer this got particularly bad with one particularly charming chap returning with his mates day after day, blasting out aggressive drum and bass all afternoon and late into the night, drinking, smoking weed and openly selling stolen bikes. The police could do little about it as they claimed no law was being broken. At such times, my two teenage daughters and I can feel threatened and unsafe leaving our house and walking into town.I dearly love the vibrancy and diversity of the town centre outside my window, and I’ve nothing against people enjoying a cider in the sunshine, but a small minority just openly take the p*ss.The walkway used to have “no alcohol zone” signs up but these were removed when Somerset council took over from Mendip.The reinstatement of such a zone would help to discourage such behaviour, make it feel a lot safer and give the police more ability to move people along when they are causing a disturbance there.

Katy Duke1 month ago Everyone loves to use the cut-through via Iceland between the M&S / Saxonvale car park & Market Place. But it involves steps & is only available when the store is open. The river bypass/overflow between the Blue House & The Blue Boar gives an opportunity for a fully accessible route between the town centre & this key car park, giving a safer traffic-free route than the narrow King Street alternative. This idea was first raised as part of the Urban Design Framework for Frome (2003). You can see the original idea on the attached images (sorry only one image is allowed).A striking steel & timber structure could be constructed between the stone walls bounding the river cutting, either cantilevered from the side wall of the Blue Boar or ‘floating’ above the watercourse with a steel structure spanning from side to side. The area to the rear of the Blue Boar & Iceland could be upgraded to give better amenity spaces & more footfall to the businesses. Owner liaison & Listed Building consent would require careful negotiations.I have a plan & further images which I will send to the Council.

Beverley Earl4 days ago

Joel Baxter2 months ago

Joel Baxter2 months ago I'd love to see an new almost river level board walk created liver in the bank for a stretch of the river. That would allow people to connect with the river in a way they aren't able to at all. I can imagine in the summer people sitting in the edge dangling their feet off the edge and into the cool water. Planting more trees along the banks above like willows would help shade out brambles the always grow there and would make the river truly spectacular. It would improve access to the river, look stunning and improve biodiversity with appropriate planting.

ANDREW BELL3 days ago

julia gray6 days ago

Lucy Rollins1 week ago

Jack Kimber2 weeks ago

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