Description
Yeovil, a market-town, a municipal borough, and a parish in Somerset. The town stands on the river Yeo, with stations on the G.W.R. and L. & S.W.R., 125 miles from London. It was known at Domesday as Ivel, passed through various vicissitudes till comparatively recent times, and is governed by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors, who act as the urban district council. The town is a seat of petty sessions and county courts, and publishes four weekly newspapers. The manufacture of kid and other leather gloves is the staple industry. There are also breweries, a butter factory, cheese stores, and nurseries. The town has undergone considerable improvement and enlargement; most of the shops have been modernized, and many handsome houses have been erected, especially in the outskirts. It presents a well-built and pleasant appearance, and has a head post office, three banks, two chief hotels, a police station, a town-hall in the Grecian style, built in 1849, a corn exchange and market-house, public baths, assembly-rooms, a temperance hall, Constitutional and Liberal clubs (the latter opened in 1895), and various local institutions. There are also an endowed grammar school, a literary institute, an agricultural society, almshouses, a workhouse, a cottage hospital, a weekly market on Friday, and fairs on the last Friday in June and the third Friday in Nov. Area of the municipal borough, 699 acres; population, 9648. The population of Yeovil Out Parish, which has an area of 3357 acres and a parish council of seven members, is 1295-making the population of the entire parish 10,943. The population of the ecclesiastical parish of St John is 6580.
The Church of St John the Baptist is an ancient and spacious building of sandstone in the Perpendicular style, contains some monuments to the Harbin, Batten, and Newman families, and has been restored. The living is a vicarage, with the parish of Preston annexed, in The diocese of Bath and Wells; gross value, £450 with residence. Holy Trinity Church, Hendford, has already been noticed under HENDFORD. All Saints' Church, Yeovil Marsh, is a small building of stone, and was erected in 1870. The living is a vicarage; gross value, £57. The Reformed Episcopal Church, erected in 1880, is a building of stone in the Early Decorated style. There are Roman Catholic, Congregational, Baptist, Wesleyan, Unitarian, and Primitive Methodist chapels. The parish includes the tithings of Yeovil Borough, Hendford, Wigden and Huntley, Lyde, Pen Mill and Marsh. Newton House, Hendford House, Pen House, Hendford Manor House, Kingston Manor, Aldon, and Hollands are chief residences. Newton and Windmill Hills command fine views.
