Frome's a special place!

Written by David Heath MP and published in Somerset Standard on Fri 27th Jun 2008

We had a bit of a do last week. It was my wife's fiftieth birthday (you'd never guess it), and we decided to celebrate, along with a friend who'd reached the same milestone, by throwing a party. Those with teenage children will know that the American high school tradition of the prom is now well embedded in the social life of the tertiary college student, but because our generation missed out, we thought it would be good to hold a "Fabulous at Fifty" Prom. And we held it at the Cheese & Grain.

Fabulous it was, at least I thought so, and what was really good was the extent to which people threw themselves into the idea of dressing up to the nines for at least one night, although what Witham Friary made of the bus full of revellers setting off from the car park I'm not sure.

The point of this is not to broadcast our party, or even say thank you to those who came. It's to celebrate how lucky we are in Frome to have a venue like the Cheese & Grain to set beside the Memorial Theatre and the Merlin. With that variety, we have the right place for all occasions. And as we enter the Frome Festival week, we can boast a little about the quality of what's on offer as well. Frome really can be a special place.