Chard, Somerset Family History Guide

Chard is an Ancient Parish in the county of Somerset.

Other places in the parish include: Tatworth with Perry Street, Tatworth, South Chard with Chilson and Perry Street, South Chard, Old Chard, Forton, Crimchard, and Crim Chard.

Alternative names:

Parish church:

Parish registers begin:

Parish registers: 1540
Bishop’s Transcripts: 1609

Nonconformists include: Baptist, Bible Christian Methodist, Calvinist, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Independent/Congregational, Particular Baptist, Society of Friends/Quaker, and Wesleyan Methodist.

Table of Contents

Adjacent Parishes

Parish History

Chard

The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales 1870

CHARD, a town, a parish, a subdistrict, and a district in Somerset. The town stands on high ground at a watershed between the Bristol and the English channels, within a mile of the boundary with Dorset, 3½ miles E of the boundary with Devon, and 13 SSE of Taunton; and is connected by a branch railway of 3 miles with the trunk line of the South-western, at Chard Junction. It 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 conduct of Col. Penruddock; and witnessed a sanguinary execution, in 1685, in connexion with the affair of the Duke of Monmouth. It comprises three chief thoroughfares; presents an irregular appearance, with very much recent improvement; and has a head post office, a railway station, two banking offices, a town hall, an assembly room, a parish church, four dissenting chapels, a grammar school, a national school, an alms-house, with £844 a year, a workhouse, two large iron-foundries, and two large lace factories. The town hall is a recent erection, in the Tuscan style; with market hall; and superseded ancient Gothic one. The church is later English, long, low, and cruciform; was restored in 1828; has a window, representing Christ in the garden, put up in 1829; and contains an elaborate monument of 1614. An Independent chapel, at a cost of £3,000, was built in 1869. Well attended markets are held on Mondays; and fairs on the first Wednesday of May, Aug., and Nov. A good trade exists in agricultural produce; and was much aided by a canal northward to the Bridgewater and Taunton canal, 3 miles E of Taunton. The town was made a borough in the time of Edward I.; sent members to parliament till the time of Edward III.; and is now governed by a mayor, four aldermen, and twelve councillors. The borough formerly comprised only 52 acres; but now comprises about 180. Real property, £6,102. Pop., 2,276. Houses, 446. Sandford, the divine of the 16th century, and Sir Simon Every, who figured as a royalist in the civil war, were natives. The branch railway of 3 miles to the town was authorized in 1860, and opened in the spring of 1863. Another railway, called the Chard and Taunton, 15½ miles long, to connect the Chard line with the Bristol and Exeter, was authorized in 1861, to be completed within four years; but the scheme for it broke down in 1863, was then transferred to the Bristol and Exeter, and was in operation in 1869

The parish includes also the tythings of Old Chard, South Chard, Crim-Chard, and Forton and Tatworth. Acres, 5,449. Real property, £20,144. Pop., 5,316. Houses, 1,037. The property is much subdivided. 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-Value, £510. Patron, the Bishop of Bath and Wells. The vicarage of Tatworth is a separate charge.

Source: The Imperial Gazetteer of England & Wales [Wilson, John M]. A. Fullarton & Co. N. d. c. [1870-72].

Tatworth

Lewis Topographical Dictionary of England 1845

Tatworth, a tything, in the parish and union of Chard, E. division of the hundred of Kingsbury, W. division of Somerset, 1¾ mile (S.) from Chard; containing 383 inhabitants.

Source: A Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis Fifth Edition Published London; by S. Lewis and Co., 13, Finsbury Place, South. M. DCCC. XLV.