Taunton Minster — formally St Mary Magdalene — is the parish church at the heart of the town. The current building dates mostly from the fifteenth century, but its glory is the soaring tower, rebuilt in 1858 to the original Perpendicular Gothic design. Tier after tier of arcading rises to crocketted pinnacles; the proportions are unforgettable.
The interior is broad, light, and full of fine carved oak — particularly the seventeenth-century chancel screen and the rood beam. Most days a side door is open, and tower tours are offered occasionally in summer. The Robert Gray monument near the altar commemorates the cloth merchant who founded Gray's Almshouses across the road.