County town: Taunton
Somerset was part of the ancient kingdom of Wessex and one of the earliest English shires, established in the 9th century. Its name derives from 'Sumorsaete', the people of Somerton.
Somerset is a county of remarkable contrasts: the wetlands of the Somerset Levels, regularly flooded until modern drainage, the limestone Mendip Hills with their caves and gorges, the upland moors of Exmoor, and a Bristol Channel coast. Glastonbury Tor, rising above the Levels, was the site of one of England's oldest monasteries — Glastonbury Abbey claimed to hold the graves of King Arthur and Guinevere. Wells Cathedral, the smallest English cathedral city, contains some of the finest medieval sculpture in Britain. The county's cider orchards, established by Norman monks, gave it one of its most enduring identities. Alfred the Great hid from the Danes in the Somerset marshes before his victory at Edington in 878.
Somerset was surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086, William the Conqueror's great census of England. The survey recorded 606 settlements in the county, with details of their lords, landholders, population, and resources.
Browse 606 Domesday settlements in SomersetEngland's 39 historic counties, established between the 9th and 12th centuries, are the framework through which English local history, legal records, and landscape have been organised for a thousand years. Most survive today as ceremonial counties, their boundaries deeply embedded in place identity.
An Aubrey report for a specific location in Somerset draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.
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