The civil parish of West Crewkerne includes the hamlets of Coombe, Woolminstone and Henley, and borders the county of Dorset to the south.

The earliest written record of Crewkerne is in the 899 will of Alfred the Great who left it to his youngest son Æthelweard.

The town grew up in the late mediaeval period around the textile industry, its wealth demonstrated in the fifteenth century Church of St Bartholomew.

During the 18th and 19th centuries the main industry was cloth making, including webbing, and sails for the Royal Navy.

The town is the birthplace of several notable people and has varied cultural and sporting facilities including those at Wadham Community School.

The name Crewkerne is thought to be derived from Cruc-aera; from the British cruc – a spur of a hill, and the Old English aera – a house, especially a storehouse.

[3] The town was known as Crocern, or Cruaern in the 899 will of Alfred the Great when he left it to his younger son Æthelweard, and by 1066 the manor was held by Edith Swanneck, mistress of King Harold.

[4] After the Norman conquest the Domesday Survey of 1086 shows the so-named manor was feudally royal, a possession of William the Conqueror, and the church estate was given to the Abbaye-aux-Hommes in Caen, Normandy.

[8] The town grew up in the late mediaeval period around the textile industry,[9] its wealth preserved in its fifteenth century parish church.

[9] The Manor Farmhouse in Henley was built from hamstone in the early 17th century, but possibly incorporates medieval fragments.

[10] During the 18th and 19th centuries the main industry was cloth making, including webbing,[9] and sails for the Royal Navy.

It evaluates local planning applications; it works with the police, district council officers, and neighbourhood watch groups on matters of crime, security, and traffic.

In 1848-9 it became a museum, reading room and library and was remodelled in 1900 by Thomas Benson of Yeovil to create shops and offices.

Before Brexit in 2020 it was part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament from that area's 1979 inception.

In the northern outskirts of the town is the Bincombe Beeches 5 hectares (12 acres) Local Nature Reserve.

[18] The Millwater biological Site of Special Scientific Interest consists of a complex mosaic of pasture, wet grassland, tall-herb fen, standing and running water, alder and willow carr.

[20] In the summer the Azores high pressure normally extends to the Region, yet convective cloud will on some days form inland, cutting sunshine.

In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms.

[23] The town is served by Stagecoach South West with buses to Yeovil via Kithill, Misterton and Haselbury Plucknett and Chard.

No major alterations have been made since the Reformation in the 1530s and 1540s, but there have been many changes to the interior to accommodate various phases of Church of England worship.

[39] Crewkerne and District Museum is part of a wider heritage centre which includes local archives and a meeting room.

[40] The development of Crewkerne during the 18th and 19th centuries, with particular emphasis on the flax and linen industry is illustrated with a permanent display.

[41] Other collections relate to local archaeology, Coins and Medals, Costume and Textiles, Fine Art, Music, Personalities, Science and Technology, Social History, Weapons and War.

[42] The Crewkerne Aqua Centre also provides swimming pool and fitness gym facilities to the town, located on the grounds next to Henhayes Park, which used to be the Grammar Schools Playing fields.

Thomas Coryat a traveller and writer of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean age was born in Crewkerne around 1577.

A later traveller Colonel Joshua Fry was born in the town in 1699 before becoming a surveyor, adventurer, mapmaker, soldier, and member of the House of Burgesses, the legislature of the colony of Virginia.