Freshford - History

History

The village has existed since Saxon times, and existed before the land at Fersceforde was given to Bath Abbey after the Norman Conquest. A mill existed here as early as 1086 and there are still remains of one built in the 1540s.

Freshford was part of the hundred of Bath Forum.

Freshford Bridge over the River Frome dates from the early to mid 16th century.

In the 19th century freestone and fuller's earth were mined in the parish and employment included the manufacture of cloth, operation of malt-kilns, breweries, and fulling-mills. The importance of weaving can be seen at the now derelict site of Freshford Mill, and the numerous weavers’ cottages in the village. Dunkirk Mill, which was built in 1795 for Thomas Joyce, is now a residential property located just over the parish boundary in Hinton Charterhouse.

The war memorial in the village commemorates the 17 men from the village who died in World War I and four from World War II.

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