The parish lies on undulating ground between the lowest slopes of the Quantock Hills and the valley of the River Tone at the Curry and Hay Moors.

[2] Alwig (a Saxon; also written Alwi) held DURSTON manor from King Edward the Confessor before the Norman Conquest.

[3] John of Erleigh, a Norman knight, later (after 1133) received the Hundred of North Petherton (including Durston) from William the Conqueror's son Henry I.

[4] Therefore, in 1180, the King removed them to other monasteries, at Taunton and elsewhere, and gave their priory to the sister Hospitallers of the order of St. John of Jerusalem.

[7] Several historical documents give tantalizing glimpses of the lives of these Sisters, who originally cared for sick pilgrims and crusaders in Jerusalem.

For whatever reason, the royal grant stipulated that this be the only Hospitallers' house in England that could receive Sisters of that order.

[4] It was later written that ′′in all respects the sisters were looked on only as servants, and as not capable of receiving or holding anything other than from the supreme powers of the order.

[6] In 1398 the Grand Master of the Order of Knights Hospitallers urged that a preceptor be named ′′whose age and character should prevent any scandal arising from his association with the nuns′′.

Around 1267 the prior of the Hospitallers in England, attending a conflict between the priory and the precept, ordered that the Sisters have their own Steward.

[4] Around 1200 William's daughter Mabel married Philip Arbalistarius, who was given the manor of Mansel (Maunsel House, a mile and a half NE of Durston).

[7] A later John of Erleigh, born in 1322,left the manor of Durston and woods to his daughter Margaret, who married Sir Walter Sandy.

[9] It is also part of the Taunton and Wellington county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The Bristol and Exeter Railway opened the Yeovil Branch Line on 1 October 1853 from a new junction station at Durston.