The Sherford Stream, a tributary of the River Tone, flows through the 7.5 hectares (19 acres) park,[1] which is located near the centre of the town.

[1] Entries in pipe rolls of the 13th and 14th centuries show that bream, pike, and eels were supplied from the vivarium to the Castle and sometimes to the royal household.

When a trench for a new sewer was cut through the park and its golf course during the 1970s, archaeologists were able to identify the deposits of silt left behind by the medieval fish ponds.

[8] He was also sympathetic to the Bristol and Somerset Total Abstinence Association and allowed the park to be used for its Public Tea Meeting and Demonstration on 17 August 1852.

[13]Two decades later, Vivary Park was still owned by the Kinglake family, but in 1894 they sold it to the Municipal Borough of Taunton for £3,659 (equal to around £230,000 in 2010), to encourage healthier lifestyles and to provide recreational opportunity for the urban working class, as set out in the Public Health Act of 1875.

[4] In 1974, Frederick Jago, a man of 38, broke the world record for non-stop walking by covering a distance of 304.26 miles within the park.

[1] Originally constructed as a stormwater measure, it is now home to several species of water birds, including mallards, moorhens, ruddy and laysan ducks, Chinese geese, and kingfishers.