Chard, Somerset

Description
Chard, a municipal borough, a market-town, and a parish in Somerset. The town is 142 miles from London, and 13 from Taunton, with which it is united by a branch of the G.W.R. It is paved, and supplied with good water from a spring in the vicinity. Chard was known to the 'Saxons as Cerdre, was visited in 1644 by Charles I. on his return from Cornwall, was the scene of a defeat of the Royalists under the command of Colonel Penruddock, and witnessed a sanguinary execution in 1685 in connection with the rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth. It comprises three chief thoroughfares, presents an irregular appearance, with very many recent improvements. It has a head post office, two banks, a town-hall, an assembly room, a parish church, four dissenting chapels, a grammar school, an almshouse with £844 a year, a workhouse, three iron-foundries, and three large lace factories. The town-hall is in the Tuscan style, with market-hall. The corn exchange, situated in the rear of the town-hall, is a spacious building, and is used as the volunteer drill-hall. Well-attended markets are held on Mondays, fairs on the first Wednesday of May, Aug., and Nov., and great markets for sheep and cattle on the first Monday in Dec., Jan., Feb., March, and April. A good trade exists in agricultural produce. The town was made a borough in the time of Edward L, sent members to Parliament till the time of Edward III., and is now governed by a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors. The boundaries of the borough were considerably enlarged in 1892. Sandford, the divine of the 16th century, and Sir Simon Every, who figured as a Royalistinthe Civil War, were natives. The parish includes also the tithings of Old Chard, South Chard, Crim Chard, and Fonton and Tatworth. Acreage, 5646 ; population of the civil parish, 3500 ; of the ecclesiastical, 5118. Snowdon, a high hill connected with the Black Downs, rises immediately above the town, and commands a magnificent prospect over Somerset and Devon. Several barrows, called Robin Hood's butts, and traditionally associated with the exploits of Robin Hood and Little John, are on Brown Down. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Bath and Wells; net value, £290 with residence. Patron, the Bishop of Bath and Wells. The church is Later English, long, low, and cruciform, was restored in 1828 and again in 1883, and contains an elaborate monument of 1614. A mission chapel was erected in 1873. The civil parish includes the ecclesiastical parish of Tetworth. A Congregational chapel was built in 1869, at a cost of £3000.