Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the Bishops of Winchester. Parts of the inner ward house were turned into the Museum of Somerset and Somerset Military Museum. For the Second Cornish uprising of 1497, Perkin Warbeck brought an army of 6,000; most surrendered to Henry VII on 4 October 1497. On 20 June 1685 in Taunton the Duke of Monmouth crowned himself King of England in a rebellion, defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor. Judge Jeffreys led the Bloody Assizes in the Castle's Great Hall.
Image: St. Mary's, Taunton geograph.org.uk 1217534
Image: The Old Grammar School, Corporation Street, Taunton geograph.org.uk 1235403
Image: Taunton, The Crescent geograph.org.uk 181181
Image: Vivary fountain 3 2793
Somerset is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east and the north-east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. The largest settlement is the city of Bath, and the county town is Taunton.
Image: Somerset Levels from Glastonbury Tor (27941775545) (cropped)
Image: St Mary the Virgin, Bruton, Somerset
Image: Puente Pulteney, Bath, Inglaterra, 2014 08 12, DD 51
Palladian Pulteney Bridge at Bath