Archaeological surveys have yielded
Palaeolithic burial and settlement sites mainly to the south of the modern town, particularly in Hendford, where a
Bronze Age golden
torc (twisted collar) was found. Yeovil is on the main
Roman road from
Dorchester to the
Fosse Way at
Ilchester. The route of the old road is aligned with the
A37 from Dorchester, Hendford Hill, Rustywell, across the Westland site, to Larkhill Road and Vagg Lane, rejoining the A37 at the Halfway House pub in the Ilchester Road. The Westland site has evidence of a small Roman town. There were several
Roman villas (estates) in the area. Finds have been made at
East Coker,
West Coker and Lufton. It derives from the
Common Brittonic river-name
gifl "forked river", an earlier name of the
River Yeo. The estate was bequeathed in the will of King
Alfred the Great to his youngest son
Aethelweard. It was recorded in the
Domesday Book as
Givele, a thriving market community. The
parish of Yeovil was part of the
Stone Hundred. After the
Norman Conquest, the manor, later known as Hendford, was granted to the
Count of Eu and his
tenant Hugh Maltravers, whose descendants became
Earls of Arundel and held the
lordship until 1561. By the 14th century, the town had gained the right to elect a
portreeve. Yeovil suffered further fires in 1620 and 1643. In the mid-19th century it became linked to the rest of Britain by a complex of railway lines, with competition between the
broad gauge lines of the
Great Western Railway (GWR) and the
standard gauge lines of the
London and South Western Railway (LSWR). The town's first railway was a branch line from the
Bristol and Exeter Railway near
Taunton to a terminus at on the western side of the town, which opened on 1 October 1853; as an associate of the GWR, this was a broad-gauge line. The GWR itself opened
Yeovil Pen Mill railway station, on the east side of the town as part of its
route from London on 1 September 1856, extended to
Weymouth on 1 January 1857), and the original line from Taunton connected with this. The
LSWR route from London reached Hendford on 1 June 1860, but a month later the town was by-passed by an extension of the
LSWR to Exeter. A new station at was provided south of the town from where passengers could catch a connecting service to Hendford. On 1 June 1861, passenger trains were withdrawn from Hendford and transferred to a new, more central,
Yeovil Town railway station. In 1854, the town gained borough status and had its first mayor. In the early 20th century, Yeovil had around 11,000 inhabitants and was dominated by the defence industry, making it a target of German raids during World War II. The worst bombing was in 1940 and continued until 1942. During that time 107 high-explosive bombs fell on the town, 49 people died, 68 houses were totally destroyed and 2,377 damaged. Industrial businesses developed around the Hendford railway goods station to such a degree that a small was opened on 2 May 1932 for passengers, but the growth of road transport and a desire to rationalise the rail network led to half of the railway stations in Yeovil being closed in 1964. First to go was Hendford Halt, closed on 15 June along with the line to Taunton, then Yeovil Town closed on 2 October. Long-distance trains from Pen Mill were withdrawn on 11 September 1961, leaving only with a service to London, but the service between there and Pen Mill, the two remaining stations, was also withdrawn from 5 May 1968. ==Geography==