Chard West

Chard West sits on the western side of Chard town in South Somerset, extending from the town centre to residential streets and farmland. The River Isle runs through the area, shaping narrow valleys and short, steep streets that link the high ground to the town centre. Local services include shops, a health centre and primary schools clustered near Fore Street, and light industrial premises occupy former mill sites beside the river. Housing ranges from terraces and cottages near the centre to 20th-century estates on the outskirts, with lanes and footpaths connecting to surrounding fields.

Industry and craft have long been part of Chard West: remains of cloth and lace workshops sit close to later factories, and one such former workshop on Victoria Road was where John Stringfellow tested a steam-powered flying model in 1848, an episode recorded in local museum collections. Community life centres on market days, sports clubs and allotments, while lanes lead out to hedged farmland and orchards that mark the Somerset landscape around the west side of the town.