Somerton ( SUM-ər-tən) is a town and civil parish in the English county of Somerset, situated on the River Cary, approximately 8.8 miles (14.2 km) north-west of Yeovil. The parish, which includes the hamlets of Etsome, Hurcot, Catsgore, and Catcombe, had a population of 5,484 at the 2021 census. Residents are often referred to locally as Somertonians. Somerton gave its name to the county and was briefly the county town around the start of the 14th century. Around 900, it was possibly the capital of Wessex. It has held a weekly market since the Middle Ages, and the main square with its market cross is today popular with visitors. Archaeological remains at Somerton provide evidence of an Iron Age Celtic settlement. The discovery of a high-status cemetery in 2019 suggests that these local people adopted a more Roman lifestyle. During the Anglo-Saxon era, Somerton was an important political and commercial centre. After the Norman conquest of England the importance of the town declined, despite being the county town of Somerset in the late thirteenth century and early fourteenth century. Having lost county-town status, Somerton then became a market town in the Middle Ages, the economy of which was supported by transport systems using the River Parrett, and later rail transport via the Great Western Railway, and by light industries including glove making and gypsum mining. In the centre of Somerton the wide market square with its octagonal roofed market cross is surrounded by old houses, and close by is the 13th-century Church of St Michael and All Angels. Somerton also had links with Muchelney Abbey in the Middle Ages. The BBC drama The Monocled Mutineer was filmed in Somerton from 1985 to 1986.
History
Archaeological evidence uncovered in 2019 indicates the existence of an Iron Age Celtic settlement, which predates any written records of the area. The grave goods found suggest the local population were of a high status and adopted a Roman lifestyle, with the older and newer graves showing marked differences in burial customs. The earliest written reference to the town is in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which records that in 733 the King of Wessex, Æthelheard, lost control of Somerton to Æthelbald, King of Mercia. Somerton was the site of the 949 meeting of the witan, a form of Anglo-Saxon parliament. The town returned to West Saxon royal control in the ninth century, and it was listed in Domesday Book of 1086 as Somertone. The name may come from Old English for sea-lake enclosure, summer town or summer farmstead. The Somerton name was extended to the people in the area it controlled, and this area became known as Somerset, although Somerton soon ceased to be the most important settlement and never grew into a large town. The parish was the largest in the Hundred of Somerton. It was briefly the county town of Somerset from the late thirteenth century into the early fourteenth century. A building referred to as Somerset castle is believed to have been built around 1280 as a county gaol, with a visitor in 1579 describing the remaining portion as "an old tower embattled about castle-like". It was owned by Sir Ralph Cromwell between 1423 and 1433. Details are vague and visible remains have vanished, so its status as a castle and its very existence is in doubt, with one writer, D.J.C. King, feeling that people were confusing it with Somerton Castle in Lincolnshire. The Abbots of Muchelney Abbey held the rectorship of the parish church of Somerton during the Middle Ages. They built a tithe barn to house the tithes of crops and produce paid by the parish to the town's rector. The abbey was dissolved in 1539 during the English Reformation and the tithes and the tithe barn passed into the ownership of Bristol Cathedral. In the 20th century the barn was converted into private housing.
Glove making was a major industry in the town in the early 19th century, along with the production of rope and twine. The Somerton Brewery, owned by a local landowner named Thomas Templeman, was first recorded under the Tithe Apportionment Act 1841. The brewery became a large producer in Somerset until its final closure around 1935. Before the National Insurance and the Health Service was introduced, Somerton Men's Club acted as a local provident society within the area. Gypsum was extracted by hand at the Hurcott open-cast mine from the Victorian era up until it closed down in 1953. In 1906, a railway station opened on the Castle Cary Cut-Off which was built by the Great Western Railway. Whilst the line still remains in use, the station was closed in 1962. When the Marconi Company built the radio stations known as the Imperial Wireless Chain for the Post Office during 1925–26, they also established their own transmitting station at Dorchester with a receiving station 30 miles (48 km) away at Somerton. Somerton was hit by four Luftwaffe bombs on the morning of 29 September 1942 during the Second World War. The bombs were aimed at the Cow & Gate milk factory, which was largely destroyed. Ten nearby houses were badly damaged. Nine people were killed and thirty-seven injured. A memorial at the dairy site commemorates those killed. Somerton also is home to large properties, such as The Lynch Country House, a grade II listed building, built in 1812, and St Michael's and All Angels Church.
Governance Somerton is an electoral division electing two councillors to Somerset Council. The electoral division is larger than the town, including several neighbouring parishes. The town also has a town council with responsibility for some local issues. In October 2009 eleven of the town councillors resigned en masse, citing excessive criticism from local residents and in particular criticism from a hostile local weblog. In February 2012 the external auditor appointed by the Audit Commission published a critical "Report in the Public Interest" regarding the activities of Somerton Town Council in the fiscal year 2008 to 2009. The town was formerly part of South Somerset district from 1974 to 2023, and part of Langport Rural District from 1894 to 1974. Somerton is part of Glastonbury and Somerton constituency for elections to the House of Commons.
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