Ilminster
Ilminster is a community and also civil parish in the countryside of south west Somerset, England, with a population of 5,808. Bypassed in 1988, the town currently lies simply eastern of the joint of the A303 (London to Exeter) as well as the A358 (Taunton to Chard as well as Axminster). The church consists of the community of Sea. Ilminster is mentioned in records dating from 725 as well as in a Charter approved to the Abbey of Muchelney (10 miles (16 kilometres) to the north) by King Ethelred in 995. Ilminster is also pointed out in the Domesday Book (1086) as Ileminstre suggesting 'The church on the River Isle' from the Old English ysle as well as mynster. By this duration Ilminster was a prospering neighborhood and was granted the right to hold a regular market, which it still does. Ilminster belonged to the hundred of Abdick as well as Bulstone. In 1645 throughout the English Civil War Ilminster was the scene of a skirmish between legislative troops under Edward Massie and Royalist forces under Lord Goring who defended control of the bridges before the Battle of Langport. The town contains the buildings of a sixteenth-century grammar school, the Ilminster Meeting House, which works as the community's art gallery as well as opera house. There is likewise a Gospel Hall.
