Let’s move to Frome, Somerset: ‘You want community? You got it’

What’s going for it? When the revolution comes, it will start here, a small historic market town deep in wildest Somerset. Frome’s got form. It rioted time and again in the 18th century when the wool trade slumped and the price of gruel skyrocketed. Nonconformism flourished. By the 1970s it had become one of those spots where hippies escaped the rat race, a utopia gently scented with patchouli oil. In 2015, it blew a raspberry at party politics, electing a town council entirely made up of independents. It is the capital of so-called flatpack democracy, grassroots DIY politics. You want community? You got it. You can’t pop out in your dressing gown for a pint of milk (organic, locally lactated, natch) without crowdfunding a piece of civic infrastructure. One newspaper called it the sixth coolest town in Britain. This does it a disservice. Frome is not cool (OK, maybe a little bit: I mean, the Foo Fighters did play a secret gig here in February). It’s just bloody great.

The case against Don’t come if you’re not a joiner-in (or do, but bolt the door and pretend you’re out). Relative isolation: trains are frequent but slow, and you’re a trek from a motorway.

Well connected? Trains: Yeovil every one or two hours (30 mins); Bath is 50 mins, Bristol just over an hour (hourly, only some direct); three direct trains a day to London (2 hours). Driving: Bath is 30 mins, Bristol an hour, the M4 and M5 getting on for an hour; there’s always the A303 (noooooo!).

Schools Primaries: Selwood, Hayesdown First, St Louis Catholic, Vallis First, St John’s CofE First, Oakfield, Steiner, Trinity CofE First are “good”, says Ofsted. Secondaries: Frome Community College and the Steiner Academy are “good”.

Hang out at… The brilliant Frome Independent, a monthly market with DJs and music.

Where to buy Just a delight, architecturally. Every kind of home. The old centre is large and piled high with 17th- and 18th-century buildings. Further out, scout out nice roads like Berkley Road, and lovely Victorians around Victoria Park. Suburbans: south around Marston Lane. Large detacheds and town houses, £500,000-£1.5m. Smaller detacheds and town houses, £250,000-£500,000. Semis, £175,000-£600,000. Terraces and cottages, £175,000-£450,000. Flats, £100,000-£300,000. Rentals: a one-bed flat, £450-£550pcm; a three-bed house, £750-£950pcm.

Bargain of the week Three-bed Victorian town house in the centre, needing renovation, £250,000, cooperandtanner.co.uk.

From the streets

Howard Phillis “Don’t miss coffee and cake at the Rye Bakery in a stunning converted chapel.”

Sharon Paul “This is no idyll for those upping sticks; more than a handful of crushed ‘blow-ins’ have paid over the odds for a small house with no parking, realised they can’t commute to Bristol, let alone London, and left again fast. Be prepared!”

Live in Frome? Join the debate below

Do you live in Pwllheli and the Llyn peninsula, Gwynedd? Do you have a favourite haunt or pet hate? If so, email lets.move@theguardian.com by Tuesday 14 November.