Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for YEOVIL

YEOVIL, a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district, in Somerset. The town stands on the river Yeo, at a convergence of railways, 22 miles SE of Bridgewater; was known at Domesday, as Ivel; passed through various vicissitudes till comparatively recent times; is governed, tunder a local act of 1853, by a mayor, 4 aldermen, and 12 councillors; is a seat of petty sessions and county courts; publishes a weekly newspaper; carries on kid-glove-making to a large amount, and brewing in two breweries; underwent material improvement, by reconstructions and new erections, in years subsequent to 1853; presents a well built and pleasant appearance; and has a head post-office,‡ two r. stations with telegraph, two banking offices, two chief inns, a police station, a town hall in the Grecian style, built in 1849, a corn exchange and market house , erected at a cost of about £4,000, a fine later English church, restored in 1860, another church in the early English style, built in 1846, six dissenting chapels, an endowed grammar-school with £129 a year, two national schools, a literary institute and reading room, an agricultural society, alms houses with £300 a year, a workhouse with capacity for 300 inmates, aggregate charities £465, a weekly market on Friday, and fairs on 28 and 29 June and 17 and 18 Nov. Pop. in 1861, 7,957. Houses, 1,420.

The parish includes 5 tythings, and comprises 4,056 acres. Real property, £31,544; of which £30 are in quarries, and £335 in gasworks. Pop. in 1851, 7,744; in 1861, 8,486. Houses, 1,526. Newton House, Hendford House, Pen House, Hendford Manor House, Kingston House, Kingston Manor, Yew Tree Close, Aldon, and Hollands are chief residences. Newton and Windmill hills command fine views. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells. Value, £506. Patron, G. Harbin, Esq. The vicarage of Hendford is a separate benefice.—The sub-district contains 6 parishes. Acres, 8,048. Pop., 9,535. Houses, 1,719.—The district includes Coker, South Petherton, Martock, and Ilchester sub-districts; and comprises 52,151 acres. Poor rates in 1863, £11,131. Pop. in 1851, 28,463; in 1861, 28,189. Houses, 5,596. Marriages in 1866, 224; births, 963,-of which 61 were illegitimate; deaths, 540,-of which 193 were at ages-under 5 years, and 14 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 2,219; births, 9,497; deaths, 6,084. The places of worship, in 1851, were 39 of the Church of England , with 11,203 sittings; 8 of Independents, with 2,727 s.; 4 of Baptists, with 1,055 s.; 1 of Quakers, with 135 s.; 1 of Unitarians, with 200 s.; 13 of Wesleyans, with 2,010 s.; 1 of Primitive Methodists, with 88 s.; 2 of Bible Christians, with 292 s.; 2 of Brethren, with 290 s.; and 2 undefined, with 600 s. The schools were 24 public day-schools, with 1,419 scholars; 57 private day-schools, with 1,339 s.; 52 Sunday schools, with 4,763 s.; and 2 evening schools for adults, with 28 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, a sub-district, and a district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Yeovil AP/CP       Yeovil SubD       Yeovil SubD       Yeovil RegD/PLU       Somerset AncC
Place names: IVEL     |     YEOVIL
Place: Yeovil

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