The village of Dowlish Wake, to the south of Ilminster, is a delightful spot with two very strong reasons for a visit - The New Inn and Perry's Cider. There are pleasant walks around the village itself and the surrounding lanes and footpaths - here you are in the heartland of rural Somerset.
The New Inn is a real traditional country pub. The bar has beams strung with hop bines and the bar furniture includes comfortable chairs and high backed settles. If the weather is fine you can sit outside and there is a pleasant garden. The pub is noted for its food and we thoroughly recommend a visit either before or after you go to Perry's.
There is much to see at Perry's Cider Mills, including a museum of old farm equipment and a well equipped shop with items for sale which are largely on a countryside theme. And, of course, you can buy and taste the cider itself.
The Cider making craft now used over most of the world, would have been spread by emigrants from Western Europe - mainly France, Ireland and of course the western counties of Britain.
The farm cidermaking tradition evolved mainly from the autumn production from fruit grown on the farm's own land, to be drunk by the farm labourers throughout the following year. Although not actually produced for sale, it was often sold to local pubs.
If a farmer did not make cider he would find it very difficult to hire casual labour at such times, for very often no cash would change hands, only cider and food such as bread and cheese.
Cider making may not have appeared in the farm accounts, but it had just as an important a place in the farming calendar as sowing and harvest.
West country ciders tended to be much stronger in taste than the Herfordshire variety, probably because of the use of special cider apple varieties, high in tannin, more akin to the wild crab apple. All cider apples are very rich in sugar and it is this which produces the alcohol during fermenting. The cider produced today tends to be rather sweeter than that of yesteryear, and of course it is produced to suit the market.
After harvesting the apples they would be kept in tallets (lofts of the cider mill) until ready for crushing and pressing, this was done between layers of straw, the juice then went into casks  with no added sugar or yeasts and left to ferment. Although large producers use much the same methods to produce the cider we can buy today they have refined the craft and therefore have much more control over events and the end product then had the farmers of the past.
Ilminster is the main town of the area and, having been bypassed some years ago, has regained much of the peace and charm that it had in the years before the annual summer holiday rush down the A303 gave it a reputation as a major bottleneck. We are once again in Ham stone country here, so the main market place is a delight with its honey coloured buildings with classic lines and proportions. The open sided market hall makes a superb centre piece to the square and gives an indication of the quantity of trade which passed through this town in its heyday. A pleasant town in which to shop.
The name Ilminster is derived from the river Isle, which flows through the town and from the minster whose tower dominates much of the sky line. If you have visited the city of Wells already, and feel there is something familiar about the Ilminster tower, you are right. It was inspired 500 years ago by the central tower of Wells cathedral. Look inside for the tomb of Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham who founded Wadham College at Oxford.