Taunton School was founded in 1847 as Independent College, a boys-only school for dissenters – those who were not members of the Church of England. In the 1870s, the school’s governors purchased a site at the northern end of Taunton, on Staplegrove Road.
The table below shows the dates that past and present Somerset County Cricketers attended the school and the dates that they represented Somerset County Cricket Cub.
| Players Name | School Dates | Somerset CCC Dates | |
| H A (Arthur) Erlebach | IC | 1868-71 | 1879 |
| Thomas Ford | IC | 1873 (Jan-Dec) | 1879 |
| Robert Ford | IC | 1881-82 | 1886 |
| Robert (R S B) Savery | IC | 1881-87 | 1886-89 |
| William (E W) Bartlett | IC | 1886-87 | 1886-95 |
| Montague Sturt | IC | 1886-94 | 1896-1910 |
| James Maxwell | IC | 1895-99 | 1906-08 |
| Charles Deane | IC/TS | 1895-1902 | 1907-13 |
| Stanley (ES) Goodland | IC/TS | 1896-1900 | 1908-09 |
| John Harcombe | IC/TS | 1897-1900 | 1905-19 |
| Leslie Marshall | TS | 1900-13 | 1913-31 |
| Alan Marshall | TS | 1900-14 | 1914-31 |
| John (Jack) White | TS | 1903-07 | 1913-37 |
| Laurence (L H) Key | TS | 1906-13 | 1919-22 |
| John (J H) Cameron | TS | 1926-33 | 1932-47 |
| Harold Fear | TS | 1914-24 | 1934 |
| Ronald (R A) Gerrard | TS | 1927-30 | 1935 |
| Eric Hill | TS | 1934-38 | 1947-51 |
| Peter (P J) Eele | TS | 1941-54 | 1958-65 |
| John Baker | TS | 1944-51 | 1952-54 |
| David (D G) Hughes | TS | 1945-50 | 1955 |
| Ricky Bartlett | TS | 1978-85 | 1986-92 |
| Nicholas Pringle | TS | 1980-85 | 1986-91 |
| Piran Holloway | TS | 1987-89 | 1994-2003 |
| Matthew Bulbeck | TS | 1993-97 | 1998-2002 |
| Adam Dibble | TS | 2004-09 | 2011-15 |
| Tom Abell | TS | 1996-2012 | 2014- (captain) |
The photos below – one from 1985 and one from 1951 – of Taunton School’s 1st XI at the time, feature some players who later played for Somerset.
in his book Sunshine, Sixes and Cider – a history of Somerset Cricket, David Foot makes several references to Taunton School. He discusses E.J. (Ted) Tyler, who as cricket coach at Taunton School, ’taught Jack White the rudiments of flight’ and in 1909 coached John Cornish White as he made his debut for the County.
John Hemsley Cameron born in Jamaica, was ’a popular member of the school team’, and toured with the West Indian Touring team of 1906, before joining the school and latterly the County side.
In 1947, Eric Hill, again from Taunton School, and who ‘valued the chivalry of the game’, joined Somerset, along with Miles Coope and Les Angel. Foot describes Hill as a ’tall, upright’mbut a ‘bit of a disappointment’ as an opening batsman’ however his fielding either in the deep or at short leg, was an ’asset’.
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