How to find the lamp
Frome is a market town in the north-east of Somerset, about fourteen miles south of Bath. The lamp stands in a small triangular square — Valentine Square — where Catherine Street widens, just before the cobbles of Catherine Hill drop towards the town centre.
Getting there
Walk down Catherine Street from Badcox, or up Catherine Hill from the town centre. Whittox Lane runs off to the left, towards the Trinity conservation area. The square is at that meeting of roads: a wooden love seat, a plaque with the dedication of the site to Saint Valentine, a cobbled heart with the lamp standing inside it. Frome train station is a short walk or a brief taxi ride.
What you will see
A restored and fully working Cockey gas lamp, made in Frome in the mid-to-late 19th century, with an 1880s-style six-pane Westminster lantern. A restored and operational George V post box is fixed to the lamp post — still in Royal Mail service. The lamp sits in a heart of cobbles. A love seat looks down the hill, and on the wall above it a plaque dedicates the site to Saint Valentine.
A few yards down Catherine Hill, in the recess by number 30, another plaque marks where the lamp first stood before it was salvaged in 1991. The story of how it was created is on this site.
When to come
The lantern illuminates with gaslight after dark all year, not only on Valentine’s Day. A sensor brings it on automatically at dusk; a timer puts it out before midnight. Sit on the bench as night falls, Reg says, and if your wish is not vindictive or selfish, it may be granted when the light comes on.
Frome Independent Market days often find Reg on the Valentine bench, talking to visitors, telling the story of the lamp and collecting donations.
The annual lamplighting ceremony is on Valentine’s Evening: gather from 5.30pm, the ceremony begins at 6pm, 14 February 2027. The ceremony is free and outdoors.
Around the lamp
Independent shops and cafés on Catherine Hill, the Sun Inn public house, and the lanes of Trinity. Frome Town Council keeps the square tidy and the planters filled. The Friends of the Frome Valentine Gas Lamp look after the lamp itself and organise the annual ceremony.