Sedate BRIDGWATER has seen little excitement since it was embroiled in the Civil War and its aftermath, in particular the events surrounding the Monmouth Rebellion of 1685. Having landed from his base in Holland, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, an illegitimate son of Charles II, was enthusiastically proclaimed king at Taunton, and was only prevented from taking Bristol by the encampment of the Catholic James II's army there. Monmouth turned round and attempted to surprise the king's forces on Sedgemoor , three miles outside Bridgwater. The disorganized rebel army was mown down by the royal artillery, Monmouth himself was captured and later beheaded, and a period of repression was unleashed under the infamous Judge Jeffreys, whose Bloody Assizes created a folk-memory in Somerset of gibbets and gutted carcasses displayed around the county.

The town was once one of Somerset's major ports and still has some handsome red-brick buildings around its centre. The thirteenth- to fourteenth-century St Mary's church (Mon-Wed & Sat 10.30am-noon, Thurs 10.30am-noon & 2-3.30pm), immediately identifiable by its polygonal, acutely angled steeple that soars over the town centre, has an oak pulpit and a seventeenth-century Italian altarpiece. By the River Parrett on Blake Street, and just round the corner from the red-brick Christ Church, where Coleridge preached in 1797 and 1798, Bridgwater's Blake Museum (Tues-Sat 10am-4pm; free) shows relics, models and a video-documentary relating to the Battle of Sedgemoor. The sixteenth-century building is reputedly the birthplace of local hero Robert Blake, admiral under Oliver Cromwell, whose swashbuckling career against Royalists, Dutch and Spanish is also chronicled and illustrated here.

Bridgwater's tourist office is on the High Street (March-Oct Mon-Fri 10am-5pm Sat 10am-4.30pm; Nov-Feb Mon, Wed & Fri 10am-1pm & 1.45-4pm; tel 01278/427652). If you're looking for accommodation hereabouts, try Acorns , 61 Taunton Rd (tel 01278/445577; under £40), on the banks of the Bridgwater-Taunton Canal, or, more centrally, the atmospheric Old Vicarage , right opposite St Mary's Church (tel 01278/458891, oldvicaragehotel@aol.com ; £60-70), which calls itself one of Bridgwater's oldest buildings. For snacks head for the Nutmeg House in Angel Crescent, behind the shopping centre off the High Street, where good pastas, soups, salads and a breakfast menu are offered (closed Sun).

A good time to be in Bridgwater would be for the carnival celebrations, which usually take place on the nearest Thursday or Friday to Guy Fawkes Night (one of the Catholic conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot hailed from nearby Nether Stowey). Grandly festooned floats belonging to the local Carnival Clubs roll through town, before heading off to do the same in various other Somerset towns and villages, including North Petherton, Glastonbury, Wells and Shepton Mallet.