Since the Poor Law of 1601, care of the destitute, aged or sick fell on the parish and was administered by the Overseers of the Poor. The parish provided 'indoor relief' within the parish workhouse. The inefficiency of each parish providing for its own poor was remedied in 1834 by the Poor Law Amendment Act which allowed parishes to join together in 'Parish Unions' to provide relief.

The poor of six Somerset parishes (Goathill, Marston Magna, Poyntington, Rimpton, Sandford Orcas and Trent) were thus sent to the workhouse in Sherborne in neighbouring Dorset under an irregular and possibly illegal arrangement. Its was inevitable that the arrangement would cause arguments, is it did towards the end of the 19th century.

The arrangement, which had been in place for some fifty years, came to the notice of the Boundary Commission in 1888 as it was working towards the Local Government Act which would replace the old Hundreds with County Councils and Rural District Councils. The Commission recommended that the six parishes should be transferred to Dorset.

Area and Boundaries Committee of Somerset agreed that the parishes of Goathill, Poyntington and Sandford Orcas should be transferred to Dorset but argued that Marston Magna, Rimpton and Trent "were well within easy distance of Yeovil and had at all times and without any inconvenience or complaint been included in the Yeovil Highway District and Yeovil Petty Sessional Division, the town being their natural town and place of business." and so should be retained in Somerset. Marston Magna and Rimpton remain in Somerset but the parishioners of Trent appealed the decision and the parish was transferred to Dorset in 1896.