Winter walk: Frome to Mells

Words by Sarah Baxter

Illustration by Tammy Kerr

Mells, Somerset

Distance: 13.5km, 3-4hrs

By car
From Bristol 1hr5
From Bath 0hr30
From Frome 0hr
From Stroud 1hr20

Frome is fantastic for those on foot. For a half-day stroll, with historic interest and mood-lifting blues, make for Mells. Venturing west, pick up the leafy Egford Brook, which is hugged by ancient woods. Then follow the Mells Stream, passing the ruins of Fussells Iron Works; built from the 1740s, they’re now atmospherically overgrown and inhabited by horseshoe bats. Handsome Mells, with its 15th-century pub (The Talbot Inn) and village shop and café, is a good stopping point. You could walk back from here for a shorter loop. Otherwise, continue past the church to climb Conduit Hill and join the Colliers Way, a railway-turned-cycle path. Eventually, rejoin the Mells Stream and follow the East Mendip Way back to Frome.

Fuel up: When it reopens in spring, you can have tea and scones among the blooms at The Walled Garden at Mells.
Don’t miss: The grave of First World War poet Siegfried Sassoon, at Mells’ St Andrew’s Church.
Fact: In the Domesday Book in 1086, Mells was named Milnes or Mulne, meaning many mills. The mills were used for washing and processing raw wool into cloth.

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