Summary
Former schoolroom; original purpose not known, possibly built as a chapel. Probably late C16; extended and converted to a school chapel around 1957. Later alterations and repairs, including restoration in 1961.
Reasons for Designation
The chapel at Chard School is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* for its association with the late-C16 former merchant’s house which became a grammar school in 1671 and its use as a schoolroom, possibly from the late C17.
Architectural interest:
* whilst it is architecturally simple and unadorned, the building is of good quality and retains the majority of its envelope intact.
Group value:
* it has a strong historic and spatial grouping with the Grade II* listed main school building.
History
Chard originated as a Saxon settlement that was located probably in the vicinity of the Church of St Mary, in an area now known as the Old Town, and was part of a large estate belonging to the Bishop of Bath and Wells by the time of the Norman Conquest. In 1236 Bishop Jocelyn granted a charter for a borough to be established to the north of the earlier settlement, laid out along the High Street-Fore Street axis. The local economy was dominated by woollen cloth production during the medieval and post-medieval periods, and Chard was a centre for cloth finishing, and for trading and exporting the finished material up until the C19.
Many buildings in the town were destroyed or significantly damaged by a major fire in 1577. Recovery appears to have been rapid, and by the early C17 many new buildings had been constructed, among them was a large, three-storey house (separately listed at Grade II* and part of Chard School) at the eastern end of Fore Street. It was built around 1583 as a private residence for William Symes, a successful merchant who had large land holdings in Somerset, Devon and Dorset. He died in 1597, and in 1671 the property, along with an acre of land, was conveyed to the town by one of his descendants, also called William, for a grammar school and schoolmaster’s residence to be established there for the ‘education and bringing up of youth in virtue and good learning.’
The former schoolroom is situated to the east of the former house. It may have late-C16 origins and was possibly built as a domestic chapel (Pevsner, see Sources). It served as the schoolroom after the grammar school was established, and was described in a printed advertisement for the school from 1828 as ‘very spacious and healthy’. Due to an increase in pupil numbers in the second half of the C19 a building programme was undertaken at the school, and changing rooms, toilets, a second schoolroom and a dining room were erected alongside the existing schoolroom. Following the demolition of the school’s late-C19 chapel in 1957, the schoolroom was converted to a chapel. At this time it was enlarged by incorporating a lobby at its western end and a window was added in the north wall. The extensions around the building were also removed. It has been subject to various repairs since then, including the partial rebuilding of its south wall. It continues in use for morning assembly, drama and musical events.
Details
Former schoolroom; original purpose not known, possibly built as a chapel. Probably late C16; extended and converted to a school chapel around 1957. Later alterations and repairs, including restoration in 1961.
MATERIALS: it is built of random limestone rubble under a gabled thatched roof with dressed stone coping to the east gable.
PLAN: it has rectangular, one-room plan.
EXTERIOR: it is a single storey building of four bays. The rebuilt south front has a doorway with a much-weathered chamfered surround, a plank door and label moulds over and three mid-C20 five-light stone mullioned windows with leaded lights that match the previous windows. To the left of the entrance is a mid-C20 lozenge-shaped window with raised, chamfered surround which contains a memorial window to D B M Hume, a former headmaster. The rear elevation has a similar five-light mullioned window which is a mid-C20 insertion, a doorway at either end, and a modern flat-roofed extension to the right. The east gable end has stone quoins and a heavily-restored three-light Perpendicular window and has a hoodmould over.
INTERIOR: this comprises a single room with a raised stage at the west end and a barrel-vaulted ceiling.
