Chard Museum

The ‘50 Years and Beyond Spaces Project’ was established to create a framework for the museum to improve and rationalise its exhibits, develop the museum as a community space, and increase engagement across a wider spectrum of users. Corbel Architects, working closely with the museum trustees and leading a team of structural engineers, mechanical consultants, museum consultants and quantity surveyors, undertook an in-depth Feasibility Study to explore a range of options and establish broad project costs.

The museum occupies a 16th-century thatched farmhouse and adjoining former public house, which were altered and extended during the 19th century to create a row of thatched cottages. Their conversion into Chard Museum, circa 1970–72, combined the buildings and opened up the former cottages to create a single, large exhibition space.

Careful analysis and research of the buildings, their context and history was undertaken alongside a detailed understanding of the museum’s wide-ranging collection and the stories it seeks to tell. This informed a series of design options for an appropriate and sympathetic conversion, designed to better reveal the history of the buildings and allow the architecture itself to become one of the museum’s principal exhibits.

The proposals also explored improvements to accessibility and visitor flow throughout the site, together with the potential addition of new museum buildings within the rear garden to accommodate additional exhibition, community and support spaces.

The resulting Feasibility Study and Pre-Planning Application have created a clear roadmap for the Trustees, helping to guide ongoing community engagement, shape the museum’s future development and support applications for future funding.