Bed and breakfast availability
Chard b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Chard and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Chard, Somerset. At 400 ft up it is the highest town in the county. Its mile-long main street, possibly Roman, has, from the stately pillared Guildhall West especially, lots of attractive buildings. Almost opposite the Guild-hall, the fine Ham-stone three-story façade is Elizabethan, formerly of a manor house: an alley leads from the street to its first-floor court-room, which can be visited, with splendid windows, fireplace and well-restored plasterwork ceiling. Further up the street are good almshouses, founded in 1663 and well rebuilt in 1861; also the basically Elizabethan Choughs pub; and at the top on either side many fine cottages, one bearing a plaque to John Stringfellow who in 1848 became the first person to make a power-driven aeroplane (a model one) fly. At the bottom of the street part of the Grammar School buildings date from 1671.

Away from this street red-brick and dreariness takes over. The mainly 15^th-century parish church is about ¼ mile South: rather sombre but with some grand Ham-stone tombs in its yard.

The town grew first as a tanning centre in the 13^th century, then as a weaving centre in the 15^th century. When the latter industry declined, c. 1800, it made lace. Today it has various industries and is trying to attract more. Its products include artificial limbs, bearings, air blowers, shaving brushes, hydraulic jacks and animal feeds. Surrounded by rich farmland, it also has an important dairy. In the past strongly nonconformist, it backed Cromwell in the Civil War and Monmouth in 1685. Margaret Bondfield, the first woman cabinet minister, was born in it in 1873.

Pretty villages nearby are Wambrook, 2 miles South West, Whitestaunton, 2½ miles North West, Winsham, with an interesting church and Elizabethan manor house, and Cricket St Thomas.

Nearby towns: Axminster, Crewkerne, Honiton, Ilminster

Nearby villages: Beetham, Blackdown, Broadwindsor, Burstock, Chardstock, Combe St. Nicholas, Corfe, Curland, Dalwood, Donyatt, Greenham, Ham, Hatch Beauchamp, Hawkchurch, Higher Wambrook, Hinton St. George, Hurcott, Ilton, Kilmington, Lambrook, Lopen, Marshwood, Membury, Otterford, Pilsdon, Pitminster, Shute, South Petherton, Staple Fitzpaine, Stockland, Stocklinch, Stoke-sub-Hamdon, Thorncombe, Wambrook, Whitney, Widworthy, Yarcombe

Have you decided to visit Chard or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Chard bed and breakfast (a Chard B&B or Chard b and b)
• a Chard guesthouse
• a Chard hotel (or motel)
• a Chard self-catering establishment, or
• other Chard accommodation

Accommodation in Chard:

Find availability in a Chard bed and breakfast, also known as B&B or b and b, guesthouse, small hotel, self-catering or other accommodation.