Established | 1970 |
---|---|
Location | Godworthy House, Chard, Somerset, England, United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 50°52′22″N2°57′31″W / 50.8728°N 2.9587°W Coordinates: 50°52′22″N2°57′31″W / 50.8728°N 2.9587°W |
Type | Local museum |
President | Tony Prior |
Website | Chard Museum |
Chard Museum is a small local museum in Chard, Somerset, England. It opened in 1970, in a converted 16th century listed building, with collections of exhibits about local history and displays related to the lives of notable local residents.
The basis of the collection dates from around 1880 when Arthur Hull collected ‘curiosities’. He left these to the town and in 1917 they were transferred to the Museum of Somerset in Taunton, before returning to the new museum in 1970. [1]
The museum is housed in a 16th-century thatched building which was originally four cottages. [2] The building was converted and restored for use as a museum in 1970, and later incorporated the building next door which had been the New Inn public house. [1] [3]
In 2010 doubts were raised about the ongoing funding of the museum. [4] [5]
Exhibits within the museum tell the story of the town and the local area including geology, the fire of 1577, the Monmouth Rebellion and local lace mills. [6] Outside there is a blacksmith's forge and display of farm machinery. [7]
There are also displays on notable people with connections to the town.
John Stringfellow and another local man William Samuel Henson achieved the first powered flight, in 1848, in a disused lace factory, with a 10-foot (3 m), steam-driven flying machine. [8] [9]
James Gillingham pioneered the development of articulated artificial limbs, [10] after working as a shoemaker in the town and seeing a man who had his arm so badly shattered in an accidental explosion of a cannon that it had to be amputated to the shoulder socket. [11] The museum includes a representation of his consulting room, including several examples of his artificial limbs. [12]
Corporal Samuel Vickery who was awarded the VC in 1897 for his actions during the attack on the Dargai Heights, Tirah, India during the Tirah Campaign. [13]
Margaret Bondfield, who was an English Labour politician and feminist, the first woman Cabinet minister in the United Kingdom and a member of the Congregational Church. [14]
Glastonbury is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, 23 miles (37 km) south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury.
Margaret Grace Bondfield was a British Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor in the UK, when she was appointed Minister of Labour in the Labour government of 1929–31. She had earlier become the first woman to chair the General Council of the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
Honiton is a market town and civil parish in East Devon, situated close to the River Otter, 17 miles (27 km) north east of Exeter in the county of Devon. Honiton has a population estimated at 11,822.
Chard is a town and a civil parish in the English county of Somerset. It lies on the A30 road near the Devon and Dorset borders, 15 miles (24 km) south west of Yeovil. The parish has a population of approximately 13,000 and, at an elevation of 121 metres (397 ft), Chard is the southernmost and one of the highest towns in Somerset. Administratively Chard forms part of the district of South Somerset.
Castle Cary is a market town and civil parish in south Somerset, England, 5 miles (8 km) north west of Wincanton and 8 miles (12.9 km) south of Shepton Mallet, at the foot of Lodge Hill and on the River Cary, a tributary of the Parrett.
Crewkerne is a town and electoral ward in Somerset, England, 9 miles (14 km) southwest of Yeovil and 7 miles (11 km) east of Chard all in the South Somerset district. The civil parish of West Crewkerne includes the hamlets of Coombe, Woolminstone and Henley – and borders the county of Dorset to the south. The town is on the main headwater of the River Parrett, A30 road and West of England Main Line railway, in modern times the slower route between the capital and the southwest peninsula, having been eclipsed by the Taunton route.
Hatch Beauchamp is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated 5 miles (8.0 km) south east of Taunton in the Somerset West and Taunton district. The village has a population of 620.
Bruton is a market town, electoral ward, and civil parish in Somerset, England, on the River Brue and the A359 between Frome and Yeovil. It is 7 miles south-east of Shepton Mallet, just south of Snakelake Hill and Coombe Hill, 10 miles north-west of Gillingham and 12 miles south-west of Frome in South Somerset district. The town and ward have a population of 2,907. The parish includes the hamlets of Wyke Champflower and Redlynch. Bruton has a museum of items from the Jurassic era onwards.
Cricket St Thomas is a parish in Somerset, England, situated in a valley between Chard and Crewkerne within the South Somerset administrative district. The A30 road passes nearby. The parish has a population of 50. It is noted for the historic manor house known as Cricket House, and its estate in recent times formerly home to a wildlife park.
John Stringfellow was a British early aeronautical inventor, known for his work on the aerial steam carriage with William Samuel Henson.
King John's Hunting Lodge is a wool-merchant's house built c. 1460, long after the death of King John in 1216, in Axbridge, a town in the English county of Somerset. It is a jettied timber-frame building of three storeys, occupying a corner plot on the town square. The building has served a variety of purposes with shops on the ground floor and workshops and living quarters on the first and second floors. At one time part of the building was occupied by the King's Head Inn; a sculpture of a king's head, which acted as a sign for the pub, is preserved within and a replica is attached to the outside. The lodge was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1971, and repairs were undertaken to reverse significant deterioration to the building.
The Perry Street and District League, commonly known as the Perry Street League, is a football competition with clubs from south Somerset, west Dorset and East Devon, England. The league was formed in 1903 by Charles Edward Small, the owner of the Perry Street Lace Works, who is commemorated by the three spools of lace depicted on the league's crest.
Seavington St Michael is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England. It is situated next to the village of Seavington St Mary, about 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Ilminster, within the South Somerset district. It lies in a hollow within a larger area of low-lying hills and valleys running broadly east-west. A part of the South Petherton Hundred, originally the area included seven settlements which have gradually merged or vanished, but were the origin of the Seavington—part of the village name.
Tatworth is a village 2 miles (3 km) south of Chard in the South Somerset district of the county of Somerset, England. It is within Tatworth and Forton civil parish, and the electoral ward of the same name.
Radstock Museum in Radstock, Somerset, England has a range of exhibits which offer an insight into North Somerset life since the nineteenth century.
Winsham is a village and civil parish 4 miles (6 km) south-east of Chard and 6 miles (10 km) from Crewkerne, in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. The parish, which has a population of approximately 750 residents living in some 335 households, includes the hamlets of Whatley, Bridge, Purtington and Ammerham, and covers an area of approximately 12 square miles (3,100 ha).
Fore Street in Chard, Somerset, England was built in the late 16th and early 17th century, following a fire which destroyed much of the town in 1577.
The Guildhall is a town hall and community building in the town of Chard in the English county of Somerset.
James Gillingham (1839–1924) was a prosthetic limb manufacturer based in Chard, Somerset in the 19th century and one of the first to have photographs taken of his works.
"Chard Museum, registered charity no. 270186". Charity Commission for England and Wales.