History
Building the Frome Memorial Hall
Lest We Forget…Beginnings
Towards the end of 1918 the community of Frome hit upon the idea of building a memorial hall in memory of the fallen of the First World War.
A replacement was needed for the old Market Hall and with pressure from the well established Frome Amateur Operatic Society (FAOS), it was decided that a proper performance facility should be built to include a good stage, orchestra pit and understage area.
n November 1918 an Executive Committee recommended that a permanent memorial tablet should be placed within the building. Initial proposals included a library and reading room but these were later dropped.


Making Decisions…
In January 1919 a Frome Memorial Hall Committee was formed which included members of the Demobilised and Discharged Soldiers and Sailors Association. The patron was the Marquess of Bath. A contract for the site was secured at the cost of £1,500. It was agreed the cost would be paid by public subscription. In April an appeal was sent out to all the households of Frome and by June £1,258 had been raised and a further public meeting in July agreed to acquire the site for the hall.
On this site stood the old home of the Cockey family, South Hill House. It had been built in 1868 and from 1910-1914 became a school. The building was bought and demolished and it was agreed that work would continue dependent on what funds could be raised. By November these funds had increased to £2,187.

“The Wedding Cake”…
From 1920 to 1924 a variety of events were organised to raise funds including fetes, concerts, sports events, garden shows, flag days, bazaars, dances, competitions and many more. .
In 1921, local architect Percival Rigg was commissioned to design the building. His first design was nicknamed “The Wedding Cake” but in a time of great poverty following the war and flu epidemic this building would have been too expensive.
In the autumn of 1923 the derelict South Hill site was purchased and the architect was asked to prepare fresh plans and to get the site cleared.

Laying The Foundation Stone
Laying the Foundation Stone…
In April 1924 the Building Committee visited the Picture Palace in Trowbridge built by Mr Rigg and concluded something similar would be suitable for Frome. Mr Rigg produced plans for a hall which he thought could be built for £4,000. In July 1924 local company Barnes cleared the site retaining the bricks for re-use in building the hall.£4,500 was committed to erect a “plain hall” capable of seating 800 people by March 1925.
On 20th September the Marquess of Bath officiated at the laying of the foundation stone which featured a wreath of leaves commissioned from local artist Leonard Stockting.




The Opening Ceremony…
The formal opening ceremony took place on 13th April 1925 by the President of the British Legion, General Sir Ian Hamilton. The Memorial Hall was far from finished and covered in scaffolding. The main area was covered with a tarpaulin which at one point lifted in the wind and poured water down on the guests! Several thousand people attended the ceremony including the Marchioness of Bath. Although unfinished it had a dance floor, stage, orchestra pit, under stage area and a balcony.
There were socials, dances, entertainments, concerts, theatre performances, lectures and, rather bizarrely, a motor gymkhana!
On the 24th April 1925 a bronze memorial tablet with names of the men of Frome who had fallen in the Great War was commissioned from Singers. This was unveiled during the first remembrance service held at the hall on November 11th 1925.
Volunteers played an important role in the history of this theatre. Teams of volunteers organised numerous fund raising events and by September 1926 the Plasterers and Painters of Frome had completed the walls and ceilings, completely free of charge.
The work of volunteers has been crucial to the Memorial Hall throughout its history and the Memorial Theatre continues to be run solely by volunteers to this day.
The Cinema Years 1931 - 35
In the early 1930s, partly in response to the world-wide growing interest in films, and possibly because the Urban District Council were having difficulty running the Frome Memorial Hall profitably,On 3rd December 1931, an application for the transfer of the entertainment and dancing licence to Mr. E. J. Pugsley of Bristol was approved by the magistrates, with 3 sureties appointed to an overseeing trust, a sub-committee of the UDC. A resident manager, Mr. F. Locke was appointed. The hall was rewired by Somerset Theatres Ltd with British Thomson Houston Sound equipment to enable “talkies”. “
” was the tag in local advertisements. There were various other renovations, reseating of chairs and new seats in balcony.
Additions and alterations were made to the facade of the hall and it became the Grand Cinema. In November 1931 the hall was renamed The Grand Memorial Hall, always informally referred to as The Grand
Throughout all its years as a cinema, the hall was owned by the town council of Frome and there was always one of the councillors whose responsibility was the Grand.
Before WW2 the lessee was Mr. Shepherd. In about 1950, Bill Plank took over the lease and he continued into the 1970s. By 1959 the Grand had a yearly pantomime under producer Alan Gale. Some of these shows were significant. In November 1964 the magistrates granted Plank a renewal of of the cinema licence and a music & dance licence. The police supported his application. In 1973 the Grand presents the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
In July 1974, Plank, gave up the lease on the Grand that he had been operating for many years


The Grand and FAOS

In 1931 a contract that was signed allowed the Frome Amateur Operatic Society (FAOS) to perform 2 show a year. The cinema was obliged to provide theatre facilities for each show and time for the necessary prep and post production tasks. A get-in, the rigging, the technical and dress rehearsals, followed by up to 5 performances and then the get-out, would certainly have equated to a full week’s suspension of cinema, possibly two.
The Closing Of the Grand 1974
In July 1974, Plank, gave up the lease on the Grand that he had been operating for many years. In consequence the Grand closed on 21st September 1974 until a new lessee was found. The last film was Tony Curtis in “The Great Race“. Frome Town Council had budgeted £13K to spend on repairs.
Elsewhere in Frome, in July 1974, Raymond Franklin became the owner of the Westway Cinema in the newly opened Westway Precinct. He was a colourful character who publicly liked to be known as “Mr Sex” and, allegedly, was often seen in the company of young ladies. Almost 90% of the films he showed were low production ‘adult’ films. In defence he noted that takings went up by 35% when such films were shown.
Despite his reputation, in October 1974 the lease of the Grand was awarded to Raymond Franklin. He had taken on a 15-years lease and spent £13K on a refurbishment. Franklin planned a certain amount of adult entertainment. The cinema was re-opened on 10th February 1975 with “The Three Musketeers“. Presumably trying to find a reliable audience in the face of the fast growing trend for video rental, he was showing occasional X rated films at the Grand. This earned him a lifetime ban by Disney when they discovered he was showing a couple of X rated films on the same schedule as “Bambi“.
Frome Town Council hoped that the public hall would continue FAOS shows, the annual Carnival Queen event and other functions. In October 1974 Franklin was planning a pantomime for the end on 1975. He also ran the small theatre in the Bingo Hall at Westbury and in 1977 he held the first Bingo session at the Grand.
In August 1984, Mr Franklin gave up the lease in a dispute with the council and he took down all the cinema fixtures and fittings. In early 1985, FTC gave Franklin notice to quit. In February he held his last event, a Bingo session for which he wore a black arm band. He called the hall a White Elephant and said he would leave quietly with his equipment if he received £20,000 in compensation. There was a row over unpaid rent and the money that would be needed for repairs and that culminated in solicitors and councillors swooping on the building and changed the locks on all doors. The councillors issued a statement saying that their move was to safeguard future performances and stop Mr. Franklin from holding the trustees to ransom. Franklin replied “You are turning me out like an old dog” and announced that he intended to stop the councillors using his equipment. He swore to start proceedings to recover his cinema equipment, fixtures and fittings, and obtain substantial compensation. But the council was determined not to allow the costs to be met by the rate payers.
By the end of the hall’s long life as a cinema, apart from films, there were only 2 stage events a year that contributed to its income, the Carnival Queen and a show from FAOS. The last FAOS performance in the Grand was “Camelot” in 1984. In spring 1985, the hall’s life as a cinema came to an end. Over the years the lessees had not maintained the hall to the standards required by their lease and an estimated £70,000 was required to bring the hall up to standard.
The Frome Memorial Hall had been a cinema for 54 years.

Hexagon Suite
Frome had had an Assembly Rooms facility since the early 1920s. After WW1, one was created upstairs in the George pub in the middle of town. Some of it occupied space above the adjacent NatWest Bank. However, it was just a community and meeting room without marketable facilities.
Preparatory work got underway in late 1973 and in early 1974, construction of a new Assembly Rooms, to be built at the rear of the Frome Memorial Hall (The Grand), began. The builders were Biggs of Timsbury. The hall had been owned by Frome Urban District Council, a division of Mendip District Council. In 1974, the responsibility for running the town was passed to a new body, Frome Town Council. The hall became part of the Frome Memorial Hall Foundation Trust with the council as trustees.
In summer 1974 detailed planning for the new Assembly Rooms was well underway. Discussions were underway between the head of the council, the mayor, and Mendip District council’s CEO on how a new Assembly Rooms could be financed. It was decided to spend £60K on building it, financed by sale of Frome’s old waterworks.
FTC sought an operator for it and appointed the Derek James Organisation, an entertainment business in the west country run by Radio 1 DJ and businessman Derek James Wilbourne. In September 1974 he was awarded the lease of the new Assembly Rooms at an annual rent of £2,500. Lease conditions allowed entertainments, private parties and lunches, etc. Derek James planned to provide all sorts of entertainment aimed at all ages. He appointed a partner Mike Carroll to manage the catering. James would handle the entertainment, Carroll would look after the kitchen. In October, magistrates granted licences to James after discussions that took a whole day. There had been objections from 3 private individuals and they were represented by Daniel & Cruttwell, solicitors. But an on-licence, a music licence and a dancing licence were granted.
In October 1974 FTC made plans to close the South Parade entrance to car park at the rear of the suite and reopen one in Christchurch street. The proposals were to stop car parking in front of the hall, and make a crescent shaped grass area in its place. Additionally the false arch in theatre was demolished.
In the same month, the Assembly Rooms in the George pub was closed after more than 50 years because there would soon be no further need for it.
In November 1974, considerable publicity was launched to promote the new town facility. It was to be called “The Hexagon Suite”, because FTC declared that “The Assembly Rooms” was not a good enough name for such a magnificent suite. It was described as suitable for dining, dancing and other functions. A reception desk and cloakroom were available and a lounge bar.
The main area had a 6 foot wide carpet running right round it. It could host a 300 people dance. There was a kitchen, with calor gas. It was described as “Frome’s Luxury Dining and Dancing Suite”. It staged its first event on 13th November 1974 with Acker Bilk & His Paramount Jazz Band. Later the same month, it was formally opened by the mayor, Peter Bardgett.
The budget for building the Hexagon Suite had been £60K, but the finally immediate cost was £67K. The extra money was caused by various delays. FTC did not have the necessary funds to cover all the costs, and that was because the commitment to build it had been made by the previous UDC, part of Mendip District Council, and their debts were inherited by FTC. Therefore MDC decided to underwrite the commitment and they paid £46K to cover most of the cost of building of the Hexagon Suite.


Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.