Following the Frome

Pamela Parkes follows the River Frome from tranquil Cotswold countryside to its mysterious disappearance at the end of the M32. 

The River Frome has been called Bristol’s lost river but it is also perhaps a forgotten river – even the man in the tourist information office in Chipping Sodbury can’t point me in the right direction for the beginning of the Frome Valley Walk.

Overlooked in favour of the popular Cotswolds Way and the Monarch’s Way, the Frome Valley Walk may take in less majestic countryside but it is still a fascinating walk.

The source of the River Frome in a Cotswold field 

It’s an inauspicious start – the source of the river is just off Junction 18 of the M4 and the A46 at Doddington Park. No sign, no marker – it could easily be overlooked.

From the source it’s a couple of miles to the official start of the walk in the Cotswold village of Old Sodbury.

It’s a muddy but thankfully flat trek through fields to the medieval town of Chipping Sodbury, where the river twists its way through the town behind the High Street.

The river runs behind the High Street in Chipping Sodbury

Enroute one of the signs says local people have seen snakes basking by the river – I’m glad it is winter and I’m wearing wellies. 

Restored with a cuppa and cake on the High Street I march on towards Yate. The section through the town’s business park and industrial estate may not be the most inspiring but as the route winds its way through Nibley, skirts round the bottom of Iron Acton and Frampton Cotterell it is clear how the river has played a pivotal role in the development of the surroundings.

From mills, mines and quarries to willow beds – the river was central to life in the valley.

It was far too cold to take a swim at the deep water swimming area around Nightingale’s Bridge and I trudge past towards the viaduct at Winterbourne and Iron Age hill fort at Bury Hill.

You may think the picturesque part of the walk is over when you emerge out from under the M4 – after all what is ahead but the M32 and the city centre?

However, the walk through Snuff Mills, Oldbury Park and through Eastville Park hugs the river as you wind your way through parkland, woods and gorges towards the centre of town. 

Fishermen compete with the resident herons for the catch of the day at Eastville Park

Walking through Eastville Park, past the distinctive serpentine lake which is fed by the river, there is no mistaking the incessant roar of traffic as you get closer and closer to the M32.  

At the edge of the park, underneath the monolith of the M32, take a moment to contemplate the lost beauty of Bridge Farm.

Once a picturesque farmhouse nestled in the valley, the 1970s highways planners seem to have defied logic to make the motorway curve as close as possible to the building.

It may be easy to dismiss the power of the Frome but the river has a long history of flooding.

In the 1930s there was widespread flood damage in central Bristol when the river burst its banks and in 1968 five million gallons of floodwater had to be pumped out of the old Bristol Rovers football ground at Eastville, where Ikea now stands. 

The river behind Ikea

In response the Northern Storm Water Interceptor was built to take flood water from the Frome and divert it along an underground pipe to drain into the River Avon along the Portway roughly beneath the Sea Walls.

However, the interceptor has become a magnet for rubbish and, along the banks of the River Frome itself, fly tipping is half obscured by the undergrowth – the amount of rubbish is both shocking and shameful.

Picking up the walkway on the opposite side of the M32, the final part of the journey takes you through the optimistically named Riverside Park. 

Then, behind Staples and without warning, the Frome suddenly disappears underneath Cabot Circus car park – lost to view under the concrete sprawl of Bristol. 

Disappearing from view – the River Frome continues flowing underground through Bristol

While the Frome Walkway follows a direct route to Castle Park, where Bristol Castle originally stood surrounded by a moat created by the Avon and the Frome, below ground the river winds its way under the streets and buildings of the city. 

Over the years numerous cavers and canoeists have tried to follow the underground Frome, emerging at secret doors opposite Harvey Nichols and popping up through manhole covers.

Roadworks in the 1970s offered a rare glimpse of the River Frome in Rupert Street

Diverted from its original course in the Middle Ages, the river now emerges from its underground journey by the Cascade Steps, ingloriously seeping out into the Floating Harbour through a rubbish strewn grille. 

Following the Frome has been a journey through the industrial and urban development of Bristol and beyond. At times perhaps not the most picturesque of journeys, but the river deserves to be celebrated – and walked. 

The River Frome

• The river probably gets its name from the Anglo Saxon word ‘frum’, which means rapid and vigorous
• In east Bristol the river is sometimes known as Danny – possibly after the Australian slang term for dunny (a toilet) picked up from Australian troops at Bristol hospitals in WW1. Another explanation is a Bristolian translation of the Danube – after Johann Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz 
• The river drops 160m over 30 kilometres
• Low-lying marshes along the river were drained for housing and industry as Bristol expanded
• The ‘Old Fox’ pub in Easton once stood on the banks of the River and a regular was the world famous cricketer, W.G. Grace, who was a local doctor.

For more information, visit www.fromewalkway.org.uk

Read more – The Bristol Bridges Walk