The settlement of Milverton has been here since at least Saxon times. Mentions can be found in the Domesday Book, old church and tithe records, maps, legal documents, books, newspapers, and a host of other items (see 'What's in the Archive?' below).

A book called ‘A History of Milverton’ (by Farley & Ekless) was published in 1986 which prompted a renewed interest in Milverton’s past.  By the 1990s, the recently formed Milverton & Fitzhead Society began collecting items of interest which Dr Watson allowed to be stored in a big black tin box at his old surgery building in North Street.

In 2005, Nigel Wood took over the Archive, arranging to use the Old Coach House at the vicarage for storage. Its unsound structure prevented public access, but some of the items were (and still are) displayed in a glass case in St Michaels Church. By 2014, the Archive ran to 355 items. 

When Howard Davies, an archaeologist who had lived in Milverton since the 1970’s, died in 2014, all his files and books passed into the Archive, together with his archaeological finds made in and around Milverton.

Maggie Dinning took over the care of the Archive in 2018 and the Milverton Village Archive group was set up.  In September 2022, this was superseded by a registered charity, the Milverton & District Archive. Our primary aim is to establish and maintain the Archive and to make it accessible to the public for the purposes of education, research and historical interest.