[3] In 1861 the Dorset Central Railway opened a standard gauge track through the western side of the parish, joining Templecombe with Cole.

It is also part of the Glastonbury and Somerton county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

It is of stone in a 13th-century style, designed by Charles Edward Davis of Bath, and comprises an apsidal chancel and a nave with a southern bell tower.

Stavordale Priory, now a private home owned by Sir Cameron Mackintosh, is thought to be linked to the village's Old Church near the altar by a tunnel, perhaps used as a priest's escape route, some two miles in length.

The building has 13th-century origins, having been founded by a member of the Lovel family,[7] and was converted around the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries, after the Priory merged with Taunton in 1533.

[8] William Arnold an important master mason who flourished between 1595 and 1637 lived in the village in 1595 where he was church warden.