page_title: Chard, Somerset
section_title: Religious sites
hierarchical_section_title: Chard, Somerset / Religious sites
caption_attribution_description: Baptist church, Chard
context_page_description: 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 south west of Yeovil. The parish has a population of approximately 13,000 and, at an elevation of 121 metres, Chard is the southernmost and one of the highest towns in Somerset. Administratively Chard forms part of the district of South Somerset.
  The name of the town was Cerden in 1065 and Cerdre in the Domesday Book of 1086. After the Norman Conquest, Chard was held by the Bishop of Wells. The town's first charter was from King John in 1234. Most of the town was destroyed by fire in 1577, and it was further damaged during the English Civil War. A 1663 will by Richard Harvey of Exeter established Almshouses known as Harvey's Hospital. In 1685 during the Monmouth Rebellion, the pretender James Scott was proclaimed King in the Town prior to his defeat on Sedgemoor. Chard subsequently witnessed the execution and traitor's death of 12 condemned rebels, who were tried at Taunton Castle by the infamous Judge Jeffries, and hung near the Tesco roundabout. The Chard Canal was a tub boat canal built between 1835 and 1842.
context_section_description: The Anglican Church of St Mary the Virgin dates from the late 11th century and was rebuilt in the 15th century. The tower contains eight bells, of which two were made in the 1790s by Thomas Bilbie of the Bilbie family in Cullompton. The three-stage tower has moulded string courses and an angle stair turret in the north-west corner. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building. There is a church room, built in 1827. The Baptist Church in Holyrood Street was built in 1842.
caption: Baptist church
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