Frodsham packs a lot of history into a relatively small West Cheshire town.
Main Street, its principal thoroughfare, is lined with trees planted for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. Elsewhere, there’s a Stuart coaching inn, the Bear’s Paw, and rows of fine Georgian townhouses.
There’s even a rare K4 phone box outside the Cholmondeley Arms, one of only 50 such ever made featuring a post box and a stamp machine, on a variation of the classic design by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the Victorian architect also responsible for Chester Cathedral’s Gothic revival makeover.
These days, Frodsham is equally proud of its independent retailers and its status as the gateway to the 34-mile Sandstone Trail, hugging Cheshire’s central Sandstone Ridge and terminating at the Shropshire town of Whitchurch.
The historic market town, located in the shadow of Frodsham Hill and the banks of the River Weaver between Helsby and Runcorn, traces its origins to an ancient Anglo-Saxon settlement, Frodesham (Froda’s homestead).
It featured in the Domesday Book of 1086, received its town charter from Ranulph de Blondeville, the Norman Earl of Chester, around 1230, and survived the 14th-century wave of the Black Death. It was also an important port during the Middle Ages, exporting salt to Liverpool, while Cheshire cheese was stored in warehouses on the banks of the Weaver before onward transportation via the Mersey. These days, the town’s market tradition, revived by Charles II in the 1600s, continues with the bustling, weekly Thursday market and a monthly artisan market that bring the town a bustling ambience.
ART ENCLAVE
Start exploring Frodsham on Main Street by the sandstone obelisk, marking the trail head for the Sandstone Trail. A poem in the pavement at its feet, Freedom Bound, describes the trail’s 'fringe of oak leaves borrowed from a Green Man … an unseen vibration of bees.' Nearby the clocktower, erected in 1925 to mark a visit to Frodsham by the then King George V, stands at the main crossroads on Main Street. The market stalls ripple out from here around the town on busy trading days.
Walk down one side of Main Street towards the Brook Stone, a glacial boulder on the corner of Main and Marsh streets. Along the way, there are a host of architectural features and regular interpretation boards detailing the buildings that make up the Frodsham Heritage Town Trail. Look out for the four 17th-century, oak-framed thatched cottages from numbers 89 to 83, Grade II-listed in their historical finery but now blessed with modern home comforts. Further along, number 75 was the former Victorian Post Office (since relocated), while Ashley House at number 59, built 1830, was the former home of Robert Wainwright Ashley, a prominent Frodsham solicitor.
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At the bottom, cross over the road and follow the brown, tourist-information signs, to snake up a winding side street towards Castle Park and its lively modern Arts Centre. Castle Park was laid out in the 1850s by the garden designer Edward Kemp, the attractive parkland of woodland, lawns and ponds spreading out around a Georgian villa. It’s a beautiful, tranquil place to stroll around before visiting the adjacent Arts Centre, converted from the old estate coach house and stables, with an array of local businesses sited around a café-courtyard. HeARTstrings sells gifts, including Frodsham heritage tea towels, Cheshire Cakes runs regular cake-design workshops and House of Clay has creative designs fired straight from the kiln. Look out, too, for regular art exhibitions and events.
SHOPPING SPREE
Heading back downhill towards Main Street, turn right and walk back along the main thoroughfare, stopping to admire architectural flourishes, such as the 19th-century barracks gates, along the way. The Grade II-listed sandstone archway leads to the former army drill hall, built in 1901, which served as a civic centre for the town for many years. You will also pass Whitmore and White, the Cheshire food hall and wine merchants, and, just before the intersection with Church Street, the Aladdin’s cave that is Roy’s Relics, selling everything from vintage vinyl to ornaments via army surplus clothing.
Church Street leads upwards towards Frodsham Railway Station, built in 1849 for the arrival of the Birkenhead, Lancashire and Cheshire Junction Railway Company. Today, it has connections to Chester and Manchester, while Church Street is the modern shopping hub with plenty of chain stores but also a healthy sprinkling of local independent businesses. There are high-end gifts from Dandelion, and Cheshire gelato from Bene Gelateria, where gelato chef Samantha Cunliffe recently represented the UK at the Gelato Festival World Masters European final in Bologna. Her custard-based gelato, infused with ginger and cinnamon, also known as a Christmas Tingle, placed her Cheshire-made gelato among the best in Europe.
Continue uphill, passing the modern shopping complex on your right, and climb towards the parish church of St Laurence, the only Grade I-listed building in town. Like the town itself, the holy site has Saxon origins, yet the sandstone church standing today is a juxtaposition of the original Norman design and the late 19th-century restoration, adding a Victorian-Gothic twist to its chapels, porches, and west tower. Beyond lies the sandstone war memorial of Frodsham Hill, while, located opposite, is the Ring O’ Bells pub, where the James Bond actor Daniel Craig lived as a young boy. He is said to have first demonstrated an interest in a career in drama by mimicking the pub's patrons at the time his father was the pub landlord.
JOURNEY'S END
Walk back downhill to complete your walking tour, heading back towards the obelisk trailhead where you first started. Nearby, the Devonshire Bakery has coffees, lunches and five generations of baking experience from an old Runcorn family, moving to its current location in the 1970s. It’s a fitting place to end your visit, combining tradition, modernity and local produce in the shadows of the trailhead.
The Sandstone Trail first opened as a National Trail around the same time but has since been extended to incorporate the rail hubs at Frodsham and Whitchurch, dividing into three manageable, day-walking sections. Looking to the future, Frodsham contemplates its future direction, riffing on the themes of history, hills and heavenly flavours. But whether the historic market town looks to Stockport as a foodie market hub, or Snowdonia as gateway town for walkers and hikers, it is compact, history-rich and well worth getting to know better. Sometimes, good things come in small packages.
MAKE A DAY OF IT
Drink at…
The Bear’s Paw, a Stuart-era coaching inn, sits at the heart of the community with real ales, pub food and an al-fresco courtyard, greeneking.co.uk/pubs/cheshire/bears-paw.
Eat in…
Devonshire Bakery (open Tues-Sat) is a family-run bakery/café/cake studio with a fine in coffees, lunches and afternoon teas, devonshire-bakery.co.uk.
Check out…
Roy’s Relics (open Mon-Fri; weekends by appointment), a treasure-trove bric-a-brac shop on Main Street, roysrelics.co.uk.
More from…
Castle Park Arts Centre opens Tuesday to Saturday, castleparkarts.co.uk.
David Atkinson is a freelance writer and Green Badge tourist guide to Cheshire and North Wales. His latest book is A Dark History of Chester (Amberley). davidatkinson.tours
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