Interesting facts about Chard in Somerset UK
On Snowdon Hill is a small cottage which was originally a toll house built by the Chard Turnpike trust in the 1830s, to collect fees from those using a road up the hill which avoided the steep gradient.
Fore Street.
Chard claims to remain the birthplace of powered flight, as it was here in 1848 that the Victorian aerial innovator John Stringfellow (1799–1883) first demonstrated that engine-powered flight was possible through his work on the Aerial Steam Carriage. James Gillingham (1839–1924) from Chard pioneered the development of articulated artificial arms when he produced a prosthesis for a man who lost his arm in a cannon accident in 1863. Chard Museum has a display of Gillingham’s work.
Chard was a key point on the Taunton Stop Line, a World War II defensive line comprising of pillboxes and anti-tank obstacles, which runs from Axminster north to the Somerset coast near Highbridge. In 1938 a bomb proof bunker was built behind the branch of the Westminster Bank. During the war it was used to hold duplicate copies of the bank records just in case its headquarters in London was destroyed. It was also used to store the emergency bank note supply of the Bank of England. There has also been speculation that the Crown Jewels were also stored there, however this has never been confirmed.
The LSWR’s station (later known as Chard Town) opened in 1860 with a single platform, and the B&ER’s (variously known as Chard Joint or Chard Central) in 1866. For five years LSWR trains continued to call at Chard Town and then reversed to the connecting line and then resumed their forward trip to the Joint station. In 1871 a new platform was opened on the connecting line; this closed to passengers on 1 January 1917 but the town station was the main goods depot for the town until it finally closed on 18 April 1966. Passenger trains ceased to run to Chard Central on 11 September 1962, and private goods traffic on 3 October 1966. The station building and train shed still stand and are in use by engineering companies.
The 36.97 hectares (91.4 acres) Chard Reservoir, around a kilometer northeast of the town, is a Local Nature Reserve. It is used for dog walks, angling and birdwatching, with a bird hide having been set up. Variety which are spotted frequently consist of herons, kingfishers, cormorants, grebes, ducks and also a broad range of forest songbirds. Others include the great white egret, cattle egret, and spotted redshank.
Snowdon Hill Quarry is a 0.6 hectare (1.3 acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest on the western outskirts. The area shows rock exposures through the Upper Greensand and Chalk, containing fossil crustaceans which are both unique and exceptionally well-preserved turning it into a key locality for the study of palaeontology in Britain. The unit has been dated to the subdivision of the Chalk known as the Turrilites acutus Zone, named after one of the characteristic fossils, which was laid down in the Middle Cenomanian era between 99.6 ± 0.9 MA and 93.5 ± 0.8 MA (million years ago).
At an altitude of 121 metres (397 ft), Chard is just one of the highest locations in Somerset, and is also the most southern. The suburbs include: Crimchard, Furnham, Glynswood, Henson Park and Old Town. Local folklore believes that the town has a very unusual and one-of-a-kind feature, a stream going either side of Fore Street One stream sooner or later flows into the Bristol Channel and the other makes it to the English Channel. This circumstance changed when the dependent of the Axe was changed into the Isle; the gutter in Holyrood Street, though, still flows into the River Axe and for that reason it is still true it lies on the watershed and that two gutters within the down ultimately drain into the Bristol Channel and the English Channel.
The town’s public transport links to Taunton are now supplied by First Group’s Buses of Somerset. Two routes serve the town. Route 30 and route 99, which both run hourly during weekdays.
There are also caves in Chard, first documented in a charter of 1235 as being used by stonemasons, which provided regional building stone. The cave is more compact than when it was used as a quarry as part of the roof structure has fallen in but a cave 20 feet (6.1 m) underground still prevails with the leftovers of the supporting pillars left when it was being worked.
A 1663 will by Richard Harvey of Exeter established Almshouses which became Harvey’s Hospital. These were rebuilt in 1870 largely of stone from previous building. The subsequent hangings occurred where the Tesco roundabout now stands, the original tree being removed by railway in 1864.
There was a fulling mill in the town by 1394 for the textile industry. After 1820 this expanded with the town becoming a centre for lace manufacture led by manufacturers who fled from the Luddite resistance they had faced in the English Midlands. Bowden’s Old Lace Factory and the Gifford Fox factory are examples of the sites constructed. The Guildhall was built as a Corn Exchange and Guildhall in 1834 and is now the Town Hall.
Chard’s name was Cerden in 1065 and Cerdre in the Domesday Book of 1086 and it means “house on the chart or rugged ground” (Old English: ceart + renn). Before the Norman Conquest Chard was held by the Bishop of Wells. The town’s first charter was from King John and another from the bishop in 1234, which delimited the town and laid out burgage holdings in 1-acre (4,000 m2) lots at a rent of twelve pence per year. The parish of Chard became part of the Kingsbury Hundred,
Much of the town was destroyed by fire in 1577. Hereafter time the town was largely rebuilt including Waterloo House and Manor Court House in Fore Street which were built as a house and courtroom, and have now been exchanged shops and offices. Further damage to the town occurred during the English Civil War with both sides plundering its resources, particularly in 1644 when Charles I spent a week in the town.
In the 1860s the town became the terminus of two railway lines. The first was opened in 1863 by the London and South Western Railway (LSWR) as a very short branch line from their main line. This approached the town from the south. The second and longer line was opened by the Bristol and Exeter Railway (B&ER) in 1866 and ran northwards, close to the route of the canal, to join their main line near Taunton. From 1917 they were both operated by one company, but services were mostly advertised as though it was currently two separate lines. It was closed to travelers in 1962 and freight traffic was withdrawn a few years later.
From 1842 Chard was the terminus of the Chard Canal, a tub boat canal that joined the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Creech St. Michael. It had four aqueducts, three tunnels and four inclined planes along its 13.5-mile (21.7 km) length. It took seven years to construct and cost about £ 140,000 (£ 12.1 million in 2016).