Guildhall, Fore Street, Chard - 01460 260 051 Chard.tic@chard.gov.uk

The name of the town was Cerden in 1065 and Cerdre in the Domesday Book of 1086. This is derived from the Old English word ceart which means a rough common, overgrown with gorse, bracken or broom.

Snowdon Hill Quarry on the western outskirts of the town is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest because of the rock exposures through the Upper Greensand and Chalk which contain fossil crustaceans which are both unique and exceptionally well-preserved and support study of palaeontology in Britain.

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 one acre lots at a rent of twelve pence per year.

Most of the town was destroyed by fire in 1577. After this 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 converted into shops and offices.

Further damage to the town took place during the English Civil War with both sides plundering its resources, particularly in 1644 when Charles I spent a week in the town.

A 1663 will by Richard Harvey of Exeter established Almshouses known as Harvey's Hospital. These were rebuilt in 1870 largely of stone from previous building.

In 1685 Chard was one of the towns in which Judge Jeffreys held some of the Bloody Assizes after the failure of the Monmouth Rebellion in which 160 men from Chard joined the forces of the Duke of Monmouth. The subsequent hangings took place on Snowden Hill to the west of the town.

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 claims to be the birthplace of powered flight, as it was here in 1848 that the Victorian aeronautical pioneer 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 limbs 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 is a key point on the Taunton Stop Line, a World War II defensive line consisting of pillboxes and anti-tank obstacles, which runs from Axminster north to the Somerset coast near Highbridge.

Action Aid the International Development Charity had their headquarters in Chard when they started life in 1972 as Action in Distress. The Supporters Services department of the charity is still based in Chard.