A passionate lover of photography has restored one of the earliest known images of Fromes's main street which has a fascinating, and criminal, back story.

John Short has made photography his main pastime for more almost 50 years and one of his own shots appeared in the BBC TV programme Countryfile's Calendar.

He said: "In recent years I've been extremely interested in collecting and restoring historic photographs reflecting the social aspects of life in the late 1800 early 1900's . The slides I restore are from around the world and often they do not have any information identifying the location. Using clues within the image I search newspaper archives and google to identify where the picture was taken. The picture on the Frome page I found by searching newspaper archives for Prosser Organ Builder."

The background to the time the photo comes from 1881, could have come from a modern newspaper - youngsters in Frome behaving very badly.

The news came from the police who reported that: "John Tucker (18), William Holland (19), John Stokes , Charles Willis (10) and Thomas Short (18) had been arrested. At half-past ten a stone was thrown through a window, there were fourteen or fifteen young fellows the street, shouting and disgraceful language."

As the incident escalated there was a fight, and subsequently the group appeared at Trowbridge Magistrates, where a lawyer urged the bench to: "inflict such punishment as would be remembered by the prisoners, and serve as a warning to others who neither discouraged nor stopped them. "

The sentences were indeed harsh.

Stokes was sentenced to six weeks' hard labour and an additional month for assault, Willis, who was only ten at the time, was sentenced to six weeks' labour, and Short for a month's hard labour.

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John has also shared a photo from one of Frome's lesser know but hugely awarded photographers, Owen Greystone Bird. Born in 1862 Bird won hundreds of awards for his photographs and had a worldwide reputation for his skill and composition. He ranked among the finest and most successful Victorian photographers. John asked : "So why is his work relatively unknown ?"

The street photo was shared to the social page Somerset History & Mystery, where old magic lantern slides, postcards and photos from Frome and the surrounding villages and towns are featured.