Dunster

"DUNSTER, a parish, market, and post town, in the hundred of Carhampton, in the county of Somerset, 2½ miles S. of Minehead, and 22 N.W. of Taunton. It is situated in a beautiful spot near the Bristol Channel, and contains the hamlets of Alcombe, Aville, Bondington, Frackford, Kitswall, and Staunton. In the Domesday Survey it is called Torre, and was subsequently a borough returning members to parliament, but afterwards united with Minehead, and was disfranchised by the Reform Bill. In Saxon times there was a stronghold here, upon the site of which William de Mohun, Earl of Somerset, built a castle. There was also a small priory of Benedictines belonging to Bath Abbey. The town, which consists principally of two streets, contains a court-house, where petty sessions are held weekly; a new police station, a market-house, and bank. The old shambles, which formerly stood in the centre of the town, have been removed; but it is still a place of little importance, never having recovered the loss of its wool trade. It is a polling-place for the western division of the county." From The National Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ireland (1868) Transcribed by Colin Hinson © 2003