Visit Chard Museum

The Story of Chard Museum

Chard's First Museum

Chard had its first 'museum' in 1880. Arthur Hull, a regional male, had actually developed a collection of 'interests' while working as a surveyor in the area and left them to Chard Town Council when he passed away.
His collection was placed on display in the City center but drew in little interest and started to deteriorate so it was handed over to Somerset County Museum in Taunton in 1917.
Chard and District Museum
The Arthur Hull collection remained there for the next fifty years until a newly-formed Chard History Group began to project for a museum in Chard to commemorate the story of the town.
The Town Council purchased a derelict 16th century structure in High Street, which had previously been four cottages, and provided the restored structure to a new 'Museum Council'. This building, now known as Godworthy House, was the very first home of Chard Museum

Godworthy House and the New Inn circa 1967
Much of the Arthur Hull collection was returned from Taunton and Chard and District Museum opened for the very first time on 20th July, 1970. The Museum grew rapidly and quickly had to expand.
Next door to the Museum a pub called the New Inn had closed and this too was purchased by the Town and leased to the Museum.
For many years farming machinery had actually been made in Chard and examples began to be added to the Museum's collections. By now show space was getting extremely restricted so a new open-sided structure, the 'Barn', was integrated in the late 1980s. This was soon confined to make a weatherproof screen area.
In 1994 the Town Council kindly provided the Museum using an open area behind the Barn and this field now consists of many other examples of locally made farming devices.

Chard Museum is a signed up charity (No. 270186) set up in 1970. It is handled by a group of Trustees who, like all the employees included with the Museum, are overdue volunteers.First signed up under the Museums and Galleries Registration Scheme in 1990, it was awarded complete Accreditation in April, 2006, among the first volunteer-run museums in the South West to receive this recognition.The Museum & Heritage Centre exhibits have actually been expanded and improved progressively throughout the years and consist of numerous collections of nationwide value consisting of those of John Stringfellow (1799-1883), an early pioneer of powered flight, and James Gillingham (1839-1924) who was an important maker of synthetic limbs.

Godworthy House,
High St,
Chard
TA20 1QB
01460 65091

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