CONTEXT 187 : MARCH 2026 27 INFRASTRUCTURE WESSEX While there were a number of woollen mills across Frome in the late 18th century, the site for the dyeworks and drying tower on the river at Pilly Vale (the early name for Willow Vale) is ideal, being close to both the river and rack fields. By the beginning of the 19th century extensive facilities for dyeing were recorded in Pilly Vale, with 12 vats and seven furnaces operated by John Olive, and 52 men employed5. However, as the 19th century progressed, the West Country textile industry started to decline6. This was due to many factors: wool becoming secondary to cotton; steam-powered innovations in the manufacturing of wool being adopted more quickly in the north, close to the coalfields; and a shift in fashion away from broadcloth to lighter materials. The Napoleonic wars of 1803–1815 meant that Frome, supplying thousands of yards of blue uniform cloth, had a temporary reprieve from decline, but by 1825 the West of England cloth trade suffered a significant downturn. In the 1830s the poor rate in Frome rose, and a significant number of families left Frome and emigrated to Canada7. Fires at the dyeworks in 1867 and 1875, combined with a general transition of the textile trade from the West of England to the north, marked the beginning of the end of the dyeing trade in Pilly Vale, and the end of the useful life of the drying house. The dyeworks equipment was put up for sale in 1879 and the complex of buildings split up at auction in the following year. In 1898 there was a report of ‘the old dyehouse’ being pulled down8. This corresponds with the changes in the Ordnance Survey maps from 1885 and 1902, which record a number of buildings having been removed from the A typical process of wool processing in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the wool and dyeing industries were at their peak in Frome4 • Wool bought (from England or Spain) • Cleaned and dried – scoured (washed), dried and willeyed (beaten to expand fibres) • Dyed ‘in the wool’ • Grease added (to aid handling) • Scribbled and carded (pulled into strands) • Spun • Woven • Burled and scoured (objects removed and washed) • Fulled to felt (at fulling mill with water-powered hammers or stocks) • Tentered (cloth stretched and dried) • Nap raised and sheared (cloth finished) The building was used for the drying of dyed wool, as part of a larger dye works complex. 4 Mann, J. (1971) The Cloth Industry in theWest of England from 1640 to 1880, Clarendon, Oxford. 5 Somerset Standard (1893) ‘Some Reminiscences of Frome Worthies’, 25 November. 6 Belham, P. (1985) The Making of Frome (second edition), Frome Society for Local Study, Frome. 7 Somerset Standard (1898) ‘Frome News’, 19 August. 8 Somerset andWiltshire Journal (1900) ‘Change from Pilly Vale to Willow Vale’, 6 October. 9 Partridge,W. (1823) A Practical Treatise on Dying ofWoollen, Cotton and Skein Silk, the Manufacturing of Broadcloth and Cassimere, H. Wallis and Co, NewYork. site, including the building adjoining the drying tower. As the dyeing businesses closed, the renaming of Pilly Vale to Willow Vale in 1900 signalled the end of over 150 years of industrial dyeing along this section of the river in Frome. The remains of the drying house itself at Willow Vale are constructed with local Forest Marble limestone with lime mortar joints, standing at around 6.4 metres tall. There is a door opening facing north at ground level, indications of a filled-in door above this and three windows, two on the first floor and one on the ground floor.The interior walls still show traces of previous beams and post holes, which give an insight into the original configuration of the building. There is evidence of parallel floor joists, with rectangular apertures in the wall at a height of about 2.5 metres above ground, and just below this a series of filled-in smaller post holes, angled to suggest a cartwheel arrangement of smaller beams fixed at a central point. These lower post holes may have been used to support beams for hanging wool or cloth during the drying process, in line with contemporary methods9. Some remains of plasterwork exist inside the tower, with extensive areas of rubble stone exposed due to the effects of water and vegetation damage. There are the remains of a flagged floor with a central brick furnace and draughting flue set below ground level in the centre of the building. Directly opposite the door, above the furnace flue at chest height, a simple pair of crossed keys is etched into the remaining stucco plaster. Some of the lower ring of post-holes are filled and plastered over, indicating that the building was reused for a different purpose once the radial beams had been removed. Following the end of its useful life, the drying tower at Willow Vale fell into decline. Changing ownership and changing boundaries meant that the building was neglected and fell into a state
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