Ilminster

Ilminster is mentioned in documents dating from 725 and in a charter granted to Muchelney Abbey (10 mi to the north) by Æthelred the Unready in 995. Ilminster is also mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as ‘Ileminstre’, meaning 'The church on the River Isle' from the Old English ysle and mynster. By this period Ilminster was a flourishing community and was granted the right to hold a weekly market, which it still does. In 1645 during the English Civil War Ilminster was the scene of a skirmish between parliamentary troops under Edward Massie and Royalist forces under Lord Goring, who fought for control of the bridges prior to the Battle of Langport. The town contains the buildings of a…