Apex Insurance Brokers is a Bristol-based independent commercial broker handling a working book of business in Frome and across the eastern Mendip area of Somerset. We will be direct about it: we are not a Frome firm, and we do not maintain an office in the town. We trade from QCS, 53 Queen Charlotte Street in central Bristol, and the working drive to Frome is fifty to sixty minutes via the A36 to Beckington and then on the A361, or down the A37 across the Mendips. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under FRN 724952 and registered at Companies House as 07014570. Frome is one of the more distinctive markets we cover. It has a national reputation as a creative, independent market town with a deep population of small retail, hospitality, charity and arts businesses, and the insurance book we carry there reflects that character closely.
Frome is a market town in the Mendip area of Somerset, with a town population of around 28,000 and a wider eastern Mendip catchment that includes Radstock, Mells, Beckington, Nunney and the surrounding villages. The Office for National Statistics mid-year population estimates (https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates) and the ONS UK Business Counts dataset (https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/activitysizeandlocation/bulletins/ukbusinessactivitysizeandlocation/latest) are the working references for current enterprise totals across Somerset Council. Somerset Council, the unitary authority since 2023, publishes its economic strategy at https://www.somerset.gov.uk/, and the NOMIS labour market profile (https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/reports/lmp/) gives the working employment breakdown.
The character of the Frome commercial economy is distinctive enough to be a feature rather than a footnote. The town has built a national reputation over the past fifteen years for independent retail and a strong creative business base. Catherine Hill, the cobbled street rising from the centre, is the visible heart of the independent retail cluster — its run of independent shops, cafés, galleries and small businesses has been written up repeatedly in the national press, including a well-known Mary Portas piece that compared Frome favourably to chain-dominated high streets elsewhere. The economic implication for the local commercial market — both rental values for retail premises and the trading profile of independent operators — is real.
Hospitality is the second pillar. Frome supports a deep population of independent restaurants, cafés, pubs and small hotels, and sits within easy reach of Babington House, the Soho House country property at Babington just outside the town, which anchors a wider hospitality and visitor economy. The Cheese & Grain on Justice Lane is the town’s main events and music venue, hosting regular live music, the Frome Wessex Beer Festival and other events.
The Frome Independent Market, held on the first Sunday of every month from March to December, is one of the largest and best-known street markets in the South West, drawing tens of thousands of visitors across the year. It is a working trading platform for hundreds of independent businesses across food and drink, vintage and antique, craft and design, and the broader creative economy. The market has its own insurance implications — for the organising body, for the stallholders, and for the town’s commercial premises during high-footfall trading days.
Charity, arts and not-for-profit organisations form a notable third pillar. Frome has an unusually high concentration of community-led organisations, arts venues, town-and-country charities, and small not-for-profit operators relative to its size. The town’s broader civic and creative culture, including the high-profile Independents for Frome local political grouping that has run Frome Town Council for a decade and a half, sits behind a deep population of small charitable and community organisations.
Outside the town centre, the Marston Trading Estate, the Commerce Park and the smaller industrial areas at the edge of town carry the light industrial, distribution and trade-supply base. Major employers across the eastern Mendip area include Mulberry (the leather goods company headquartered at the Rookery in Chilcompton just to the north), Babington House and Soho House group, Frome Medical Practice, and a long tail of independent retail, hospitality and creative businesses.
The Frome book leans towards three of our twelve sector hubs.
Retail. The independent retail cluster across Catherine Hill, Cheap Street, the Westway, Stony Street and Bath Street is the working population, and it sits at the centre of the Frome book. We place retail insurance for independent shops, galleries, delicatessens, vintage and antique businesses, craft retailers and small retail groups operating from listed or unlisted commercial stock. The independent retail business model — typically lower-volume, higher-margin, owner-operated, and more vulnerable to shifts in footfall — carries its own risk profile, and stock cover, business interruption and money cover need realistic sums insured that reflect actual trading rather than aspirational figures.
Hospitality. The restaurants, cafés, pubs and small hotel population across the town centre and the wider hospitality cluster around Babington House are the second pillar. We place hospitality insurance for independent restaurants and cafés, gastropubs, small hotels and bed-and-breakfast operators, and event venues including the Cheese & Grain ecosystem. Licensed-trade alcohol cover, business interruption with realistic indemnity periods for the seasonality of trade, and event-specific public liability for venues running regular live music and event programmes are central.
Charity and not-for-profit. Frome’s concentration of charitable, community-led and arts organisations is unusually high for a town of its size, and the not-for-profit book is a meaningful share of the work we do in the town. We place charity and not-for-profit insurance for small and medium charities, community-interest companies, arts organisations and event-running bodies. The cover stack — buildings and contents (often on listed or shared community premises), public liability, employer’s liability, trustee indemnity, fidelity, and event-specific cover — is well established but takes care to get right.
Beyond those three, we regularly handle property owners insurance for the listed and unlisted retail and mixed-use stock in the town centre, office insurance for the professional services and creative agency population, construction insurance for the trades working on the town’s listed and traditional building stock, and event-specific public liability for the Frome Independent Market organisers and significant one-off events at the Cheese & Grain.
Frome has a set of risk features that materially affect how policies are placed.
River Frome flood corridor. The River Frome runs through the heart of the town, and parts of the town centre — including stretches close to the historic core — sit within the river’s flood corridor. The Environment Agency Long Term Flood Risk service (https://check-long-term-flood-risk.service.gov.uk/) is the working reference. Past events have included localised commercial flooding, and we always check the flood risk band before placing property cover on stock in the central area. Where the risk is non-trivial we discuss flood-specific cover, resilience measures and Flood Re position with the client.
Creative independent retail trading profile. The economic strength of the Catherine Hill independent retail cluster is one of Frome’s defining features — but the trading model of small, owner-operated independent retail businesses carries a different risk profile from chain retail. Failure rates for small independent businesses across the UK are materially higher than for chain operators, and business interruption sums insured need to reflect realistic trading rather than aspirational figures. We discuss this honestly with retail clients at placement.
Frome Independent Market scale and public liability. The monthly Frome Independent Market draws tens of thousands of visitors across the trading day, and the public liability exposure for the organising body and the participating stallholders is genuinely commensurate with the event’s scale. We place event public liability cover for market organisers, traders’ combined cover for stallholders carrying stock and selling at multiple events through the year, and the broader event-specific arrangements that the Frome trading calendar makes sense of.
Mary Portas-era rental and trading effect. The national media attention on Frome’s independent retail cluster has materially affected rental values in the central streets over the past decade. The practical effect on insurance is on sums insured — the rebuild and contents figures for premises in the central conservation area need to reflect current values, and business interruption sums need to reflect current trading after the post-pandemic recalibration.
Listed building stock in the town centre. A high proportion of the town centre commercial stock — particularly along Cheap Street, Catherine Hill, Bath Street and Stony Street — is listed, with stone, render and traditional roofing details. Reinstatement cost assessments need to reflect like-for-like restoration in the original materials, and business interruption indemnity periods need to account for listed building consent timescales. Historic England’s National Heritage List for England (https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/) is the definitive register.
The drive from our Bristol office to Frome is fifty to sixty minutes in normal conditions — either via the A36 through Bath and Beckington, or down the A37 through Pensford and Shepton Mallet to the A361 at Nunney. In Bath traffic the A36 route can be substantially longer, and we plan the diary accordingly. For routine renewals, mid-term adjustments and the day-to-day operational work, almost everything happens by telephone, email and video call. The modern broker market is national rather than local, and a Frome business is not commercially disadvantaged by using a Bristol-based broker.
For new placements on more complex risks — listed-stock retail portfolios, event-running hospitality venues, market organising bodies, charity boards with material exposures — we travel to site. For larger renewals we are happy to visit annually, and we attend claims where it helps. We hold the same Lloyd’s and company market agencies as any UK commercial broker, and we place business across the standard panel of insurers, supplemented by the specialist not-for-profit and event markets where the technical placement requires it.
Do you have an office in Frome? No. Apex Insurance Brokers trades from QCS, 53 Queen Charlotte Street in central Bristol, and we do not maintain an office in Frome. We have a working book of business in the town and the eastern Mendip area. The drive is fifty to sixty minutes via the A36 or the A37.
Can you handle the independent retail and creative business book on Catherine Hill? Yes. Independent retail in the town centre is a significant part of the Frome book. We place stock, contents, business interruption, public and product liability, money cover and the associated package for independent shops, galleries, cafés and creative businesses. The work in Frome retail is in setting realistic sums insured that reflect actual trading.
Do you cover the Frome Independent Market and its traders? Yes. We work with event organisers and with individual stallholders carrying traders’ combined cover that handles stock at and away from premises, public and product liability and the event-specific public liability arrangements that monthly trading at this scale requires.
Are you authorised and regulated? Yes. Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority under FRN 724952, and registered at Companies House as 07014570. Our regulatory status is checkable on the FCA Register at https://register.fca.org.uk/.
Do you place flood cover for properties near the River Frome? Yes, where the market will write it. The Frome river corridor is a real consideration for parts of the town centre commercial stock. We always check the Environment Agency flood risk band first, and where the standard market will not write the risk we look at specialist flood markets and discuss resilience with the client.
Can you place charity and arts organisation cover? Yes. The Frome charity, community and arts organisation book is unusually deep for a town of this size, and we place trustee indemnity, public and employer’s liability, contents and event-specific cover for community-led and arts organisations across the town.
We also handle commercial insurance in the surrounding Somerset and Wiltshire markets, including Bath, Trowbridge, and the Mendip market town of Glastonbury. Frome sits at a natural midpoint between Bath, Trowbridge and the Mendips, and we regularly handle businesses with operations across more than one of these locations — particularly in the hospitality and charity books.
Call us on 0117 325 0027 or email hello@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk. We are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5.30pm, and we will tell you honestly at the first conversation whether we are the right broker for your business.
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Apex Insurance Brokers Limited, FCA FRN 724952, Companies House 07014570. Trading address: QCS, 53 Queen Charlotte Street, Bristol BS1 4HQ. Independent commercial insurance brokers serving the South West of England and South Wales.
Apex Insurance Brokers serves UK professional services firms and commercial businesses. Call 0117 325 0027, email hello@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk, or request a quotation.
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