Ilminster
Ilminster is a town as well as civil parish in the countryside of south west Somerset, England, with a population of 5,808. Bypassed in 1988, the community now exists just eastern of the junction of the A303 (London to Exeter) as well as the A358 (Taunton to Chard and Axminster). The church includes the hamlet of Sea. Ilminster is pointed out in records dating from 725 and in a Charter provided to the Abbey of Muchelney (10 miles (16 km) to the north) by King Ethelred in 995. Ilminster is likewise pointed out in the Domesday Book (1086) as Ileminstre indicating 'The church on the River Isle' from the Old English ysle and mynster. By this period Ilminster was a flourishing community and was approved the right to hold a regular market, which it still does. Ilminster became part of the thousand of Abdick as well as Bulstone. In 1645 during the English Civil War Ilminster was the scene of a skirmish in between legislative troops under Edward Massie and Royalist pressures under Lord Goring who defended control of the bridges before the Battle of Langport. The town has the structures of a sixteenth-century grade school, the Ilminster Meeting House, which works as the town's art gallery and concert hall. There is additionally a Gospel Hall.
