Get Ilminster Pro’s

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 currently lies just east of the junction of the A303 (London to Exeter) and also the A358 (Taunton to Chard and Axminster). The church consists of the hamlet of Sea. Ilminster is stated in records dating from 725 and in a Charter given to the Abbey of Muchelney (10 miles (16 kilometres) to the north) by King Ethelred in 995. Ilminster is additionally stated 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 period Ilminster was a flourishing area and was provided the right to hold a weekly market, which it still does. Ilminster belonged to the thousand of Abdick and also Bulstone. In 1645 during the English Civil War Ilminster was the scene of an altercation between legislative troops under Edward Massie and Royalist pressures under Lord Goring who fought for control of the bridges prior to the Battle of Langport. The town contains the buildings of a sixteenth-century grammar school, the Ilminster Meeting House, which works as the town’s art gallery and opera house. There is also a Gospel Hall.