Town in Somerset, England
Taunton
A rebel duke was proclaimed king in its market place, a notorious judge hanged his followers, and a Massachusetts city took its name: Somerset's county town has packed in a lot.
Key information
- County
- Somerset
- Nation
- England
- Known for
- Somerset County Cricket Club, Taunton Castle, the Monmouth Rebellion, Admiralty charts and cider country
- What locals are called
- Tauntonians
- Famous people
- Jos Buttler and Jack Leach (cricketers); Robert Blake (defender of the town in 1645)
- Football clubs
- Taunton Town (the Peacocks)
About Taunton
The town where a rebel duke was proclaimed king
In June 1685 the Duke of Monmouth rode into Taunton at the head of a ragged rebel army. He was the illegitimate son of Charles II, and he had come to take the throne from his uncle, James II. The town gave him a hero's welcome. Schoolgirls known as the Maids of Taunton presented him with flags and a Bible. On 20 June he was proclaimed king in the market place. It did not last. Monmouth's army was crushed at Sedgemoor on 6 July, and he was executed in London. That autumn Judge Jeffreys opened his Bloody Assizes, and the trials of rebels were held in the Great Hall of Taunton Castle. Hundreds of men across the West Country were hanged or transported. The episode still shapes how Somerset remembers the 1680s.
A castle, a priory and a siege
Taunton's story starts early. Ine, King of Wessex, is credited with founding a fortress here around 710, and the castle grew from there. Its surviving medieval buildings now house the Museum of Somerset. The Great Hall dates principally from the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. An Augustinian priory followed in the early twelfth century, and the town grew rich on wool and cloth. That wealth made it a prize in the Civil War. Taunton was held for Parliament and besieged in 1644 and 1645. The defence was led by Robert Blake, a Bridgwater man who went on to become one of England's great admirals. The town was stubborn, hungry and short of everything, but it held until relieved.
Cricket, Caribbean legends and a church for a backdrop
Taunton's County Ground is home to Somerset County Cricket Club, with the tower of St James's Church looking over the boundary. It is one of the most photographed grounds in English cricket. In 1979 Somerset won the Gillette Cup and the John Player League, the club's first trophies. The team that did it included Viv Richards, Joel Garner and Ian Botham, and the three are still among Taunton's most famous sporting names. The town has produced its own stars too. Jos Buttler, who went on to captain England's white-ball sides, was born here, as was the England spinner Jack Leach. Both came up through Somerset's ranks. On the football side, Taunton Town are known as the Peacocks.
The Somerset town that gave its name to America
There is a Taunton in Massachusetts, founded in 1637 and incorporated in 1639, with Elizabeth Poole (also spelt Pole), a native of Shute in Devon, among its best-known founders. Its name was borrowed straight from the Somerset town on the Tone. The name itself is simple. It means the town on the River Tone, which winds through the middle of Taunton and its parks, and Vivary Park is the best known of them.
Cider, carnival and the people who draw the sea
Taunton sits in the Vale of Taunton Deane, one of Somerset's great orchard districts. Cider has been made around here for centuries, and the Taunton Cider brand carried the town's name well beyond Somerset. In autumn the area lights up. Taunton's carnival is part of the Somerset carnival circuit, where giant illuminated floats, each lit by thousands of bulbs, parade through the streets on dark evenings. Taunton is also home to the UK Hydrographic Office, the organisation behind Admiralty charts. Sailors all over the world use maps that were made in a Somerset market town, a long way from the coast. Nearby, the Wellington Monument on the Blackdown Hills is the tallest three-sided obelisk in the world, at 53 metres, and can be seen for miles.