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Official Town Guide 7 1 0 2 - 6 1 0 2 Compliments of B Yeovil Town Council SPUBLISHING 2 WWW.YEOVIL.GOV.UK Yeovil Town Guide 2016-2017 WELCOME TO YEOVIL Darren Shutler, Mayor of Yeovil Located on the Somerset/Dorset border with the River Yeo running alongside it, Yeovil is surrounded by rolling hills and lush countryside. Despite the recent economic recession Yeovil still offers excellent employment opportunities and housing, as well as highly rated and newly upgraded health services, and fantastic educational facilities. Yeovil is home to AgustaWestland plc (Leonardo Helicopters) one of the world’s major helicopter manufacturers, and to Pittards plc which has a worldwide reputation for producing high- quality leather goods. The town has many fine sporting facilities and is home to Yeovil Town Football Club, Yeovil Barbarians Rugby Club, and Yeovil Golf Club which offers the choice of playing 9 or 18 hole course. There are many other sporting facilities available which can be found on pages 30-34. For visitors with limited mobility we haveYeovil Shopmobility; a loan scheme providing motorised scooters, as well as powered and manual wheelchairs to enable people with limited mobility to shop and use other pleasure/leisure facilities in Yeovil. More details can be found on page 22. For the theatre goer why not look at the great shows on offer at the Swan Theatre who stage their own productions and local amateur shows? Alternatively, the Octagon Theatre presents a full programme throughout the year including drama, concerts, comedy, opera and pantomimes. Blue plaques can be seen on numerous historical buildings around the town and a free leaflet highlighting the location of each plaque and the associated history can be found at the Town Council Offices, Tourist Information Centre and Yeovil Library (page 14). Within minutes from the town centre you can be in tranquil surroundings in our award winning Yeovil Country Park (page 20-21). You can be sure of a warm welcome in Yeovil and I hope you will find this guide useful when planning your visit. WWW.YEOVIL.GOV.UK 3 4 WWW.YEOVIL.GOV.UK OFFICIAL GUIDE Issued by Authority of YEOVIL TOWN COUNCIL Contents G G Welcome to Yeovil . 3 G G A Mini-History . 6 G G Town Council . 10 G G Historic Plaques . 14 G G Yeovil Town Team . 14 G G Yeovil Town Council Allotments . 15 G G Yeovil in Bloom . 18 G G Chamber of Trade and Commerce . 19 G G Yeovil Country Park . 20 G G Economic Development . 21 G G Access For All . 22 G G Yeovil Shopmobility . 22 G G Yeovil Maps . 23-25 G G Street Index . 26-27 G G Attractions in South Somerset . 29 G G Things to do in and around Yeovil . 30 G G Events in and around Yeovil . 35 G G Super Saturday . 37 G G Mace Bearer to the Mayor . 37 G G Town Criers’ Competition . 38 G G Yeovil District Hospital . 38 G G Secondary, Higher and Further Education . 39 G G Fire Safety Advice . 42 G G Local Information . 43 Acknowledgements: The Town Council would like to thank all those who contributed to producing this Guide: Jack Sweet (Local Historian); South Somerset District Council: Steve Fox (Principal Horticultural Officer): Katy Menday/Rachael Whaites (Countryside Manager); Lesley Jellyman (Yeovil in Bloom Promotions Officer); David Blackwell (Leisure Projects Officer); Justine Parton (Tourist Information Centre Supervisor); Joseph Lewis (Heritage Information Assistant); David Julian (Economic Development Manager) and Town Councillors Wes Read, David Recardo, Manny Roper and Matt King Wildside Photography for the generous use of their photographs. TOWN TWINNING Town Twinning seeks to bring together the people of Yeovil with those in our twinned Towns. Yeovil is twinned with Herblay in France, Taunusstein in Germany and Samarate in Italy. Yeovil Twinning Association is a voluntary body whose aims are to promote exchanges of individuals and groups between Yeovil and its twin Towns giving those who take part the opportunity to learn more about the culture, language and people of another country. Anyone wishing to join the Association or find out more about Twinning should telephone 01935 873979 or email [email protected] COMUNE DI SAMARATE Copyright 2014: SB Publishing, 17 Abbey Way, Willesborough, Ashford, Kent TN24 0HY Tel: 01233 627274 • Email: [email protected] • Website: www.sbpublishing.net WWW.YEOVIL.GOV.UK 5 Yeovil Town Guide 2016-2017 A MINI HISTORY The name of Yeovil, which has had at least 70 variations of spelling, is derived from the River Yeo, dividing Somerset and Dorset at its south-eastern extent. Evidence of early man – is shown by the discovery of Bronze Age artefacts found on Wyndham Hill and Hendford Hill. There are numerous examples of Roman discoveries – Westland Road is the site of a farmstead and settlement which probably continued after Roman times until Saxon days; an excavation at Lufton revealed a Roman villa site. The Saxons were much in evidence in the Yeovil area and a Saxon church is known to have existed by the year 950. A Saxon ‘Hundred’ (an administrative division of the county thought to have contained a hundred families) regularly gathered at a ‘moot’, or meeting, around a stone sheltered by trees at the crossroads now in Mudford Road which overlooked the whole of the domain. The moot is commemorated in the name ‘The Hundred Stone’ to this day and the stone may still be seen. After the Norman Conquest, the Domesday survey of 1086 revealed 22 freemen occupying a ‘tenement’ or Town ship; this developed into a tiny self-governing borough, separated from the Manor of Hendford, by the twelfth century. The borough was placed under the lordship of the Rector of St John’s Church with the day-to-day civil administration in the hands of a body of burgesses with a Portreeve, or Provost, at its head. At this time the centre of Yeovil became known as the Borough, which was then the market place. In Medieval times, the Black Death, said to have reached England via Weymouth Harbour, took its toll in Yeovil; the workforce was greatly reduced and in 1348 the disease accounted for three vicars appointed between October and the following January. In the late fourteenth century, the entire rebuilding of St John’s Church took place under the direction of Robert de Sambourne, Rector of Yeovil. The building seen today – a superb example of the early 6 WWW.YEOVIL.GOV.UK Butchers’ Shambles c1830 perpendicular style of architecture – is much as it would have appeared soon after its completion in the early 1400s. Of particular interest is the east window depicting the Last Supper. Judas Iscariot is depicted, very unusually, with a black halo. Yeovil was a market town from its earliest days. In 1633, Thomas Gerard wrote that the market was ‘one of the greatest I have seen.’ The Market House and a butcher’s ‘shambles’ stood on much of what is now the open space in Yeovil known as the Borough..