News that the number of pubs in England and Wales is now at the lowest ever will not surprise the historians of Frome.

Everywhere you look around town there are signs of where the pubs used to be.

Earlier this year two pubs close to Frome called time. In February The Bell at Buckland Dinham shut along with  The Cross Keys in Blatchbridge.

Pubs and Frome seem to go together, as you might expect from a market town with full pockets on the way home and plenty of drinking establishments to spend it in.

In 1774 there were 43 pubs in the town.

On the 1774 map of Frome of those 43, 11 are still open and another ten clearly identifiable.

The inns still open are the Angel (on King Street), the Blue Boar and the George Hotel (both in the Market Place) and The Griffin (on Milk Street).

Also on the map, the Lamb and Fountain (on Castle Street ) and the Three Swans on King Street.

But no more the Pack Horse (Christchurch St West), the Ring of Bells on Broadway (although the Royal Oak IS still there) . One known as the Jolly Butcher, the Crown and Sceptre on Trinity Street closed in 2014. The Old Angel And Crown Inn, on Vallis Way is now a family home.

The Ship on Badcox is no longer known as the Ship, but lives on as the Artisan. And also on that map in 1774, the Vine Tree on Berkley Road, is still open in Frome and has most recently reinvented its upstairs room as an extension of the Cheese & Grain with live music.

So which is the oldest pub in Frome ?

The historians are divided "It is not easy to sort out which is the oldest of these, but… I think the Angel might well qualify – it is suggested that its origins are of the 14th century: certainly it is absolutely in the right place for an old inn: it is also of the right kind of size and layout, but the fabric has been so remodelled over the years that there remain only a few 18th century fragments, possibly including the gates to the throughway. "As a building, the next oldest could well be the Three Swans, higher up the same street. Here the central part is certainly a timber-framed building, much disguised; the doorway, if not the door, could be later 16th century… otherwise it is much altered inside, and to the sides there are later extensions.

"Most of the remainder of these fourteen inns are of the 17th or 18th century; in the 17th century we can probably place the three Market Place hostelries, the Keyford Crown, the Griffin, the Crown and Sceptre, probably the Lamb and Fountain, the Royal Oak and the Ship; in the 18th, partly through lack of surviving documentary or architectural evidence, go the Pack Horse, the Ring of Bells and the Vine Tree."

So does it matter when a pub calls time?

One temperance campaigner would have been happy to see the closures. In 1837 they wrote about Frome's moral state being deplorable, with one writing in 1837 about Frome that : " Drunkenness, with its concomitant vices, raged fearfully."

But while pubs closed down and were often converted into homes, the debauchery of Frome remained well into the 21st century, with the town earning a reputation, particularly on a Saturday night as a place for a fight.

One of the key town centre pubs which has closed up was The Crown at 6 Market Place. This pub closed in2010 and is now used as a branch of the fashion retailer Fat Face.

Along The Butts there were three pubs : The New Inn at number six, The Red Lion at number 147 and the Somerset Arms at number 62.

According to research released June 4 The number of pubs in England and Wales continues to fall, hitting its lowest level on record

There were 39,970 pubs in June, down by more than 7,000 since 2012, said the real estate consultancy Altus Group.