Monksilver is a village 3 miles (5 km) west of the town of Williton in Somerset, England, on the eastern flank of the Brendon Hills and the border of the Exmoor National Park.

In the Domesday Book it was simply Selvre, from the Latin silva for a wood,[2] although it has also been suggested that Sulfhere, in AD 897, referred to the silvery stream below the village.

[3] In 1113 the manor was given by Robert de Chandos to endow Goldcliff Priory, which he had just established near Newport in Monmouthshire .

[5] In the 16th and 17th centuries it was a centre for cloth making[3] and field names such as "Rack", at nearby Woodford, suggest this activity.

Conservation matters (including trees and listed buildings) and environmental issues are also the responsibility of the council.

The village lies within the Tiverton and Minehead county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.