_Ilminster_, a small market town (with station) on the Ile, is a place
of great antiquity but of little present importance, though it has some
lace, shirt, and collar manufactories. It was attached to the Abbey of
Muchelney until the dissolution of the monasteries. It possesses a
noble church, the fine central tower having triple windows in double
tier (cp. Mells and Leigh), and being surmounted by clustered
pinnacles, whilst the vault is beautifully groined. The S. porch and
the transepts are also excellently designed, these parts of the
structure having been built by Sir William Wadham (15th cent.). The
nave (rebuilt in 1824) is much inferior. Note (1) large ribbed squints;
(2) font (probably once attached to a pillar); (3) vestry behind the E.
window (cp. N. Petherton, Kingsbury, Langport, and Porlock); (4)
piscinas in transepts; (5) grotesque corbels. In the N. transept are
the tombs and brasses of (1) Sir William Wadham (d. 1425) and his wife;
(2) Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham (1609 and 1618), the founders of Wadham
College, Oxford. In the S. transept is a monument to Humfrey Walrond
(d. 1580). The communion plate includes two Elizabethan chalices. The
only other building in the town of any interest is the Grammar School,
N. of the church. It bears a motto and the date 1586, and owes its
origin to Humfrey Walrond. It is now a girls' school, the boys having
been transferred to new buildings (reached from the street S. of the
church).

_Ilton_, a village on the Ile, 2 m. N. of Ilminster. It has a church of
some interest. The windows are partly Dec. and partly Perp., and the
tower is on the S. Note (1) piscinas in chancel and chapel; (2) brass
of Nicholas Wadham (d. 1508); (3) effigy of "Joan," wife of another
Nicholas Wadham (d. 1557).