is a town in south
Somerset ,
England , on the
A30 and
A37 . It has a population of 41,871 (2001 census), and is the former constituency of one time leader of the UK Liberal Democrat Party,
Paddy Ashdown . The town is in the
Yeovil Parliamentary Constituency .
It is home of the
FA Cup giant killing team
Yeovil Town F.C. Famous as a glove making town during the industrial revolution, its football team retain the nickname, ''The Glovers''.
The town's main employer is
Westland Helicopters , the proposed sale of which to the American Sikorski Fiat group in January 1986 led to a crisis in the then
Thatcher government, and the resignation of
Michael Heseltine as Defence Secretary. The political fallout continued 2 weeks later with the resignation of the then Trade and Industry Secretary
Leon Brittan after his admission of leaking of a governmental law officer's letter which harshly criticised Mr Heseltine.
Outlying villages include
East Coker , the burial place of the poet
T.S. Eliot ,
Sutton Bingham ,
Stoford ,
Evershot ,
Halstock and
Yetminster , the home of folk band
The Yetties . Other nearby villages include
Bradford Abbas ,
Corscombe , the former home of singer
Polly Jean Harvey ,
Montacute ,where one will find
Montacute House and
Pendomer , where
William Dampier (1651-1715) the controversial English explorer, sea captain, and scientific observer was born. Former England cricketer
Ian Botham lived and worked in Yeovil. The village of
Brympton now almost a
Suburb of Yeovil contains the
Medieval Manor of
Brympton D'Evercy .
The town has two train stations;
Yeovil Pen Mill serving the
Bristol-Weymouth Line , and
Yeovil Junction on the
London-Exeter Line .
The name "Yeovil" comes via
Anglo-Saxon from a corruption of the
Celtic ''gifl'', meaning "forked river".
Archaeological surveys have indicated signs of activity from the palaeolithic period, with burial and occupation sites located principally to the south of the modern town. Land south of Yeovil is also a possibility as a site for the
Battle Of Peonnum , although there has been no conclusive evidence for this.
Strategically important, the town and surrounding areas also betray traces of Roman settlement.
First recorded in the
Domesday Book as the town of ''Givle'', it features as a thriving market community, with a population of c. 1000. In 1205 it was granted a charter by
King John . By the 14th century, the town had gained the right to elect a
Portreeve . The
Black Death exacted a heavy toll, killing approximately half the population. In 1499 a major fire broke out in the town, destroying many of the wooden, thatched roofed buildings. Yeovil suffered further serious fires, in
1620 and again in
1643 .
By the time of the
1801 Census , the population of Yeovil was about 2,800. It grew rapidly in the 19th century and had a population of 11,000 by 1900.
In April 2006 Yeovil became the first town in Britain to institute a system of
Biometric Fingerprint scanning in nightclubs. The scheme is being introduced in an attempt to control troublemakers, who have plagued Yeovil for some time. Everyone wishing to gain access to one of the town's nightclubs is being asked in the first instance to submit their personal details for inclusion in a central system. This includes a photograph and index fingerprint. Thereafter, each entry to one of the participating premises will require a fingerprint scan.
BBC - Clubs to begin finger scan pilot
Guardian - Fingerprint scanners call time on yobs in Britain's Wild West
