Crewkerne is a town and electoral ward in Somerset, England, 9 miles southwest of Yeovil and 7 miles east of Chard all in the South Somerset district. The civil parish of West Crewkerne includes the hamlets of Coombe, Woolminstone and Henley – and borders the county of Dorset to the south. The town is on the main headwater of the River Parrett, A30 road and West of England Main Line railway, in modern times the slower route between the capital and the southwest peninsula, having been eclipsed by the Taunton route.
The earliest written record of Crewkerne is in the 899 will of Alfred the Great who left it to his youngest son Æthelweard. After the Norman conquest it was held by William the Conqueror and in the Domesday Survey of 1086 was described as a royal manor. Crewkerne Castle was possibly a Norman motte castle. The town grew up in the late mediaeval period around the textile industry, its wealth demonstrated in the fifteenth century Church of St Bartholomew. During the 18th and 19th centuries the main industry was cloth making, including webbing, and sails for the Royal Navy.