courthouse

Although the Court house has now been sold we have left this info site online and would still like to hear from anyone that has information about the two building. the court house is now a CAFE & Clothes shop (blue fizz)
		the Court house
as with Irongates Eleanor Houlton purchased the Court house building in about 1740, she married a Joseph Davis . there is a coat of arms on a drain head at the rear of Irongates showing this connection. She left the houses to her nice Eleanor from Bristol. who had married a Frome clothier William Sheppard. The Sheppard family became one of the most prominent families in the Frome area. Owning many of the mills that made Frome an important clothier town in the 18th & 19th centuries. and also like the merchant family giving their name to areas of Frome "Sheppard's Barton" & "Sheppard's mill". It's believed that the Court House got it name at this time as the Sheppard brothers would hold court there to decide the fate of any tenant or debtor that would not pay up on time. this is probably a flight of fancy, we had a e-mail from a descendent of the Sheppard family who had found out that Eleanor's nephew Walter Sheppard inherited "his place at Court" from her. so this may be where the "Court" bit comes from. That said Both houses were at one time, recorded as having only two occupiers with 14 companions probably servants. Both houses came in to the hands of the GRANT brothers at the end of the 18 hundreds. they where builders and its unclear if they lived here. although Dora Grant was married from here round 1907. the Grants did however do a lot building work to. both Irongates and the Court house. the Courthouse became two flat round the 1930-40's. when it was owned by a vicar from Trowbridge. it then became an accountants "BRENT AND LEE" in the early 1960's. We then bought it in 1999 to expand the shop and opened "THE RED PARROT TEAROOMS" IN 2004. The property is now let the a Ladies and Gents fashion outlet "Blue Fizz"
click for better view	This floor board was found during recent renovations. the underside has been signed and dated as Christmas eve 1902. it reads as follows "this board was laid by Douglas James Grant, the court house Frome . son of Charles and Emma Grant. 24th Dec. 1902, he was then 19. 20 in April 1903. the weather was very mild for the time of year. Dora grant his sister was then 16"
We also found a small lead tag ( see pic) we have been told that it is a wig tag, something they use to label a wig while it was "at the cleaners". we have no idea if this is right but the W S on one side does correspond with William Shepard that live at the Court House at about the same date, 1768. if anybody has a better idea let us know
There are very few pictures of the COURT HOUSE as it would have been in the 17, 18 or 1900's but it was thought that it probably has not changed much. However during our renovations we have found windows that have been blocked up for many years, most still have the oak shutters closed and the glass in. all be it broken. there is also a very large stone fire place in our dried fish goods department. it is believed that due to the style matching one other fire place in Frome it would have a date block in the herring bone back of the fire place. Unfortunately we were unable to open it up and investigate further due to the Edwardian listing. but when the stone masons repaired the chimney, they felt that by the way the chimney had been built and the size of the outlet there must be a much larger fire place then the present one. probably early sixteen hundreds.

below are some picture of Irongates at various times click on the thumbnail for the bigger picture
shell hood	new roof	repair floors	dry rot	rebuild Cornish
C1900 these 2 pictures came from the great grandson of Douglas James Grant. we would like to thank him for his contribution.		WEDDING PHOTO OF ABOUT 1905. We know the brides name was Grant (possibly Dora Grant) Douglas James Grant is pointed out
courthouse	then 1960 & now 2002	map 1890'S	we are interested in any information about the two houses and this area of Frome. if you have any thing that may be of interest photos etc. please e-mail us the detail at contact us