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Yeovil in Somerset County England History and GeographyYEOVIL, a market town and parish, in the hundred of STONE, county of SOMERSET, 9½ miles (S.S.E.) from Somerton, and 122 (W.S.W.) from London, containing 4655 inhabitants. This town, which, from the discovery of tesselated pavements and other relics of antiquity, is supposed to have been known to the Romans, derives its name from the river Yeo, or Ivel, the Velox of Ravennas, which, having its source in seven springs near Sherborne, separates the counties of Somerset and Dorset, and passes this place at a short distance to the east, beneath a stone bridge of three arches, near which it receives a small stream, turning three mills, which bounds the town on the south. It consists of numerous streets, many of them spacious; the houses in general are good, several being constructed with stone. The town is well supplied with water from springs, which rise at a short distance, and is sheltered on the north by a range of lofty hills, which, as well as the adjacent country, are in a high state of cultivation; the metropolis is chiefly supplied with what is called Dorset butter from the numerous dairy farms in this neighbourhood. On the south-east are three remarkable hills, from the summit of one of which, Newton hill, the English and Bristol channels can be discerned. The inhabitants were formerly engaged in the woollen manufacture to a great extent, but this has been superseded by that of leather gloves, which are made here to the extent of four thousand dozen per week, affording employment to many hundred persons in the neighbouring villages. The market is on Friday, and every alternate Friday is the great market: corn, cattle, pigs, bacon, butter, cheese, hemp, and flax, are sold in considerable quantities; in the purchase and sale of the two latter articles upwards of £1000 is frequently returned in one day. Fairs are held on June 28th and November 17th, for horses, cattle, and pedlary, and continue for two days each. The market-house is supported on stone pillars. The government of the town, which is a corporation by prescription, is vested in a portreeve and eleven burgesses; a mace bearer and two constables are chosen for the town, and two constables for the parish, which has a distinct jurisdiction: the portreeve exercises magisterial authority while in office. A court of record is held every three weeks, and a court leet for the borough annually, by the lord of the manor. The living is a vicarage, with the perpetual curacy of Preston annexed, in the archdeaconry of Wells, and diocese of Bath and Wells, rated in the king's books at £18, and in the patronage of John Phelips, Esq. The church, which is dedicated to St. John the Baptist, is a fine old cruciform structure, near the centre of the town, in the ancient style of English architecture, with a tower at the west end surmounted by a balustrade: it has lately received an addition of two hundred free sittings, towards defraying the expense of which the Incorporated Society for building and enlarging churches and chapels contributed £62. At its western end stands an ancient building, now used as a school-room, of much older date than the church itself; which was probably a chapel. There are places of worship for Baptists, Independents, Wesleyan Methodists, and Unitarians. A free school, originally founded in 1707, by subscription, has been endowed with sundry bequests, especially those of Francis Cheesman, in 1711; of John Nowes, in 1718, who bequeathed the manor of Lea, and estates in Romsey Extra, producing about £150 per annum, partly extended to Romsey and Fisherton-Anger, for instructing, clothing, and apprenticing poor children, and afterwards for setting some of them up in business; and of Elen Boucher, in 1725: about thirty boys are educated on the various foundations, and some of them are also clothed and apprenticed. An almshouse for a master, two wardens, and twelve poor persons, of either sex, was founded, in 1476, by John Woburne, minor canon of St. Panl's Cathedral, and endowed to a considerable extent with landed property; a chapel is annexed to the institution. The Portreeve's almshouses, in Back-street, for four poor women, each of whom receives a small allowance, is of unknown origin. In 1449, a fire consumed one hundred and seventeen houses in this town, fifty of which belonged to different chantries. From Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of England 1831, courtesy of Databases 4 Sale |
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