Fore Street, Chard

Fore Street in Chard, Somerset, England was built in the late 16th and early 17th century, following a fire which destroyed much of the town in 1577.Fore Street is a main shopping street and thoroughfare with open water channels on either side. Local folklore claims that one stream eventually flows into the Bristol Channel and the other reaches the English Channel. This situation changed when the tributary of the Axe was diverted into the Isle; the gutter in Holyrood Street, though, still flows into the River Axe and therefore it is still true it lies on the watershed and that two gutters eventually drain into the Bristol Channel and the English Channel.Numbers 7A,7B,9,11,13 & 13A Waterloo House and Manor Court House have been designated as Grade I listed buildings. They are now on the Heritage at Risk register. The Hamstone Waterloo House and Manor Court House were built in the late 16th or early 17th century. The history of the buildings is complex and not fully understood, although it is known that it was used as a court house at various periods. Worries about the condition of the buildings, and others in the row from 7 to 13 Fore Street, and the need for their preservation. has been expressed throughout the 20th century.In 2010 when the Manor Court House, where Charles I signed a peace declaration during the English Civil War, was added to the Heritage at Risk register one local trader complained that not enough was being done to maintain and conserve the building. Waterloo Court was buillt in the 16th centuiry as a house, it has since been converted into a shop with a flat above it.