Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, owned by the Bishops of Winchester, which was rebuilt as Taunton Castle by the Normans in the 12th century. Parts of the inner ward house were turned into the Museum of Somerset and Somerset Military Museum. For the Second Cornish uprising of 1497, Perkin Warbeck brought an army of 6,000; most surrendered to Henry VII on 4 October 1497. On 20 June 1685, the Duke of Monmouth crowned himself King of England in Taunton in the failed Monmouth Rebellion. Judge Jeffreys led the Bloody Assizes in the Castle's Great Hall.
The Grand Western Canal reached Taunton in 1839 and the Bristol and Exeter Railway in 1842. Today it hosts Musgrove Park Hospital, Somerset County Cricket Club, is the base of 40 Commando, Royal Marines, and is home to the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office on Admiralty Way. The popular Taunton Flower Show has been held in Vivary Park since 1866, and on 13 March 2022, St Mary Magdalene parish church was elevated to the status of Taunton Minster.
History
The town name derives from "Town on the River Tone" or Tone Town. Cambria Farm, which now hosts a park and ride close to the M5 motorway Junction 25, was the site of Bronze and Iron Age settlement and a Roman farm. There was a Romano-British village near the suburb of Holway. Taunton was important in Anglo-Saxon times as a burh with a mint. King Ine of Wessex threw up an earthen castle about 700, but it was levelled in 722 by his queen, Æthelburg of Wessex, to prevent seizure by rebels.A monastery was founded before 904. The bishops of Winchester owned the manor, and obtained the first charter for their "men of Taunton" from King Edward in 904, freeing them from all royal and county tribute. Some time before Domesday, Taunton became a borough with privileges and a population of some 1,500, including 64 burgesses governed by a portreeve appointed by the bishops. Somerton took over from Ilchester as county town in the late 13th century, but declined; the county-town status passed to Taunton about 1366. Between 1209 and 1311 the Bishop of Winchester's manor of Taunton expanded two-and-a-half times. The parishes of Staplegrove, Wilton, and Taunton were part of Taunton Deane hundred.
In 1451, during the Wars of the Roses, Taunton saw a skirmish between the Earl of Devon, and Baron Bonville. Queen Margaret and her troops passed through in 1471 to defeat at the Battle of Tewkesbury. In the Second Cornish uprising of 1497 most Cornish gentry supported Perkin Warbeck's cause and on 17 September a Cornish army some 6,000 strong entered Exeter before advancing on Taunton. Henry VII sent his chief general - Giles, Lord Daubeney - to attack the Cornish. When Warbeck heard that the King's scouts were at Glastonbury he panicked and deserted his army. On 4 October 1497, Henry VII reached Taunton, where he received the surrender of the remaining Cornish army. Ringleaders were executed and others fined a total of £13,000.
Taunton Castle changed hands several times in the Civil War of 1642–1645, as did the town. During the Siege of Taunton it was defended by Robert Blake from July 1644 to July 1645, and suffered destruction of many medieval and Tudor buildings. On 20 June 1685, the Duke of Monmouth crowned himself King of England at Taunton during the Monmouth Rebellion. In the autumn of that year Judge Jeffreys lived in the town during the Bloody Assizes that followed the Battle of Sedgemoor.
The town lacked a charter of incorporation until 1627. This was renewed in 1677, but lapsed in 1792 due to vacancies in the corporate body, and was not reincorporated until 1877. The medieval fairs and markets were celebrated for the sale of woollen cloth called "Tauntons" made in the town. On the decline of the woollen industry in the west of England, silk-weaving was introduced at the end of the 18th century.
In 1839 the Grand Western Canal reached Taunton, aiding southward trade, which was enhanced by the arrival of the railway in 1842.
A permanent military presence came to Jellalabad Barracks in 1881.
In the Second World War, the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal formed part of the Taunton Stop Line, set to curb any advance of a German invasion. Pillboxes can still be seen along its length.
A fire aboard a to London sleeping car train approaching Taunton in 1978 killed 12 passengers and injured 15 others.
Regeneration
Taunton was rated "strategically important" in the government's Regional Spatial Strategy, allowing Somerset County Council to receive funding for large-scale regeneration projects. In 2006, the council revealed plans dubbed "Project Taunton". This would see regeneration of the areas of Firepool, Tangier, the retail town-centre, the cultural quarter, and the River Tone, to sustain Taunton as a business hub in the South West.The Firepool area, just north of the town centre by the main railway station, includes vacant or undeveloped land. The council is promoting sustainable, high-quality, employment-led mixed-use development to attract 3,000 new jobs and 500 new homes. This area was the cattle market until in 2008. A large indoor shopping centre to the east of the Parade covers a site that was once a pig market. Although its official name is now Orchard, and before that the Old Market Centre, locals still call it the Pig Market; one existed there from 1614 to 1882.
In Tangier, a brownfield area between Bridgwater and Taunton College and the bus station, the project proposed to build small offices and more riverside housing.
The "Cultural Quarter" is the area along the river between Firepool and Tangier. The plans are to extend riverside retail and attract smaller, boutique businesses such as those found at Riverside.
Plans for the town centre include more pedestrianisation and greater sizes and numbers of retail units.
Several sites along the River Tone are set for renovation. Firepool Weir lock, long silted up, was to be dredged in 2011 to allow boats to pass from the navigable section of the Tone through Taunton to the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal. Goodland Gardens received a makeover and a new café, The Shed, opened. Projects to develop Somerset Square and Longrun Meadow have been put forward.
Traffic congestion was identified as an obstacle to further economic growth. Part of the strategy was a new road infrastructure consisting of a £7.5 million link road to ease traffic in the town centre, completed in 2011, and a Northern Inner Distributor Road linking Staplegrove Road, the station and Priory Avenue at a planned cost of £21 million, opened in 2017.
2011 M5 crash
A major road accident occurred on the evening of 4 November 2011 near junction 25 of the M5 motorway on the north-eastern edge of Taunton at West Monkton. 34 vehicles were involved, 7 people were killed and a further 51 injured.Governance
Taunton is governed by a parish/town council and the unitary authority of Somerset Council.Parish / town council
A large part of the town was unparished from the 1974 local government reorganisation until 1 April 2023, when a new parish council came into being following a community governance review held by Somerset West and Taunton Council.While the town was unparished, charter trustees made up of the district councillors representing wards in the unparished area elected a Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
The first elections to the new parish council were held on 4 May 2023 with 19 Liberal Democrat councillors and one Conservative councillor being elected to represent 14 wards. The council formally resolved to adopt the style of a town council at its first meeting.
Borough council
Taunton was the main settlement and centre of the local government district of Taunton Deane. The district, formed on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, by merging the municipal borough of Taunton, Wellington urban district, Taunton Rural District, and Wellington Rural District, was granted borough status in 1975, perpetuating the mayoralty of Taunton. The district was named as an alternate form of the Taunton hundred. Taunton Deane Council, once based at the Municipal Buildings in Corporation Street, moved to modern facilities at Deane House on Belvedere Road in spring 1987.Taunton Deane merged with West Somerset to form Somerset West and Taunton in 2019,
and was abolished on 1 April 2023 when Somerset Council took over.
Former county council
, which was based at County Hall in Taunton from 1974-2023, consisted of 55 councillors. The town has broadly six electoral divisions, each of which had a single county councillor: Taunton North; Taunton East; Taunton South; Bishop’s Hull & Taunton West; Comeytrowe & Trull, Monkton & North Curry.On 1 April 2023, Somerset's county council and four district councils were replaced by a single unitary authority called Somerset Council with elections for the new authority's 110 councillors having taken place on 5 May 2022.
Parliament
is a county constituency of the House of Commons. It is based on the town, but extends to Wellington. The current MP is Gideon Amos of the Liberal Democrats.Geography
Taunton lies on the River Tone between the Quantock, Blackdown, and Brendon hills. The area is known as the Vale of Taunton. It is surrounded by many other large towns and cities seen on this directional compass:Taunton is south-west of Bristol, north-east of Exeter, north-east of Plymouth and north-west of Weymouth.
Geology
The Taunton area has Permian red sandstones and breccia outcrop 295250million years old. Rocks of Triassic age underlie much of Somerset's moors and levels.Nature reserves
The several local nature reserves in and around Taunton are protected under section 21 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949. South Taunton Streams is an urban wetland. The northern suburbs include the Children's Wood riverside reserve, a movement corridor for animals such as otters along the banks of the Tone. Birds include the kingfisher, dipper, grey wagtail, mute swan, grey heron, and reed warbler; butterflies include the small and large skipper, marbled white, small heath, and small copper - along with dragonflies and damselflies.Weirfield Riverside, a nature reserve along the River Tone, has alder and willow woodland, bramble, scrub, and rough grassland. The wetter, flood-prone areas feature hemlock water-dropwort and yellow flag. Silk Mills Park and Ride offer landscaping and ponds in three areas by the Tone. The woodland and grassland support aquatic and marginal vegetation, with various birds, bats, reptiles, and invertebrates. Frieze Hill Community Orchard has turned from allotments to rough grassland and orchard. Among the apples grown are Kingston Black and Yarlington Mill.