Taunton

Taunton is a town in Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastery. Taunton Castle, risen in the Anglo-Saxon period, later became a priory. The Normans built a castle that belonged to the Bishops of Winchester; reconstructed parts of the inner ward now house the Museum of Somerset and Somerset Military Museum. During the Second Cornish uprising of 1497, Perkin Warbeck marched here an army of 6,000; most surrendered to Henry VII on 4 October 1497. On 20 June 1685 the Duke of Monmouth crowned himself King of England at Taunton in a rebellion defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor. Judge Jeffreys led the Bloody Assizes in the Great Hall of the Castle. The Grand Western Canal reached Taunton in 1839 and the Bristol and Exeter Railway in 1842. Today it includes Musgrove Park Hospital, Somerset County Cricket Club and the headquarters of 40 Commando, Royal Marines. Taunton flower show has been held in Vivary Park since 1866. The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office is in Admiralty Way.
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