Chard

Market town in Somerset, England, 19 km/12 mi southeast of Taunton; population (2001) 12,000. It is situated near the Devon border, on high ground between the Bristol and English Channels. Chard was the scene of a victory by the Parliamentary forces during the Civil War; Judge Jeffreys, the ‘hanging judge’, held one of his Bloody Assizes here in 1681.

Chard was the birthplace of John Stringfellow, inventor of a heavier-than-air flying machine, and of Margaret Bondfield, the first woman cabinet minister.