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© Mr Richard Bland ARPS
IoE Number:
374098
Location:
CHARD SCHOOL, FORE STREET (north side)
CHARD TOWN, SOUTH SOMERSET, SOMERSET
Photographer:
Mr Richard Bland ARPS
Date Photographed:
02 September 1999
Date listed:
24 March 1950
Date of last amendment:
24 March 1950
Grade
II*
The Images of England website consists of images of listed buildings based on the statutory list as it was in 2001 and does not incorporate subsequent amendments to the list. For the statutory list and information on the current listed status of individual buildings please go to The National Heritage List for England.
CHARD
ST3308 FORE STREET
756-1/4/68 (North side)
24/03/50 Chard School
GV II*
House, now school. Dated 1583. Squared flint on a limestone
plinth with Ham Hill stone dressings, plain tile roof and
brick stacks. L-plan with rear left wing: 3-room front range
with service room to left wing and parlour to right and porch
to central door opposite door to stairs; rear kitchen wing has
stair and lobby to left.
2 storeys with attics; 5-window range. All windows have
cavetto-moulded stone mullions, labelled hoodmoulds and C20
leaded lights; moulded sill courses run under ground-floor and
first-floor windows and round central, square, projecting
porch of 3 storeys: this has gables to front and sides over
3-light windows on second-floor and 4-light to front and
2-light to sides of first-floor. First and second floors of
the main facade have 4-light windows to far right and left and
6-lights flanking porch. Rear elevation has keyed
semi-circular stair light. Rear left wing has similar,
mullioned windows to right and rendered C19 extension with C20
fenestration.
INTERIOR: ground-floor room to right has mid C19 Gothic-style
shutters, marble fireplace, enriched cornice and ceiling rose.
Hall to centre has fine moulded transverse beams. Room to left
has C17 cornicing and Tudor-arched doorway with sunk
spandrels; reset late C16 panelling to rear lateral passage.
Rear wing has mid C19 cast-iron kitchen range inserted into
late C16 fireplace with hollow-moulded jambs and sunk
spandrels; wide newel staircase adjoining to left. First-floor
rooms have similar fireplaces and central plank and muntin
partition with blocked door to rear lateral stairs and passage
partition; lobby at head of newel stairs to left is divided
from rooms to front left and rear wing (over kitchen) by
similar plank and muntin partitions with front partition
having pair of related arched architraves, one with late C16
plank door to stair lobby and rear left closet; similar
fireplace to rear window. Attic: plastered collar trusses to
front roof; 2 cambered collars, with threaded purlins.
Mid/late C18 staircase provided access to Monmouth House (qv).
A complete and fine quality interior with an advanced plan
form for its date, notable for its passage access to main
rooms.
HISTORY: rainwater head dated 1583. Built as a private
residence for William Symes of Poundsford in Somerset. In 1671
he conveyed the property to 12 trustees so that it should be
converted into a grammar school with residence for the master.
It was damaged by fire in 1727.
(Pevsner N: Buildings of England: South Somerset: London:
1958-: P.118).