Church Of The Good Shepherd

Church of the Good Shepherd

The Church of the Good Shepherd in Chard is an Anglican church founded as a mission chapel to the Church of St Mary the Virgin to serve the growing population of Furnham on the eastern fringes of the town centre. The land was purchased in 1871-2, and the first stage of construction, comprising the nave and chancel, was completed in 1873. The south aisle, porch, north vestry and organ chamber were added in 1874. The north aisle was added in 1895, and the church was consecrated in 1896. The narthex at the west end was added prior to 1903. The building has remained virtually unaltered since, with the exception of the screening of a section of the north aisle to serve as a new vestry, and the insertion of a kitchen and lavatories in the narthex.

The church is built from local chert rubble with dressings mostly of Ham stone, and is set under a double Roman tile roof. It is roughly rectangular on plan, with a slightly projecting sanctuary, comprising nave, chancel, north and south aisles, south porch and a narthex at the west end.

The church is tall, with emphasis created by the steeply pitched roof to the main body of the building which sweeps out over the aisles. The west end has an embattled single storey narthex with pairs of lancet windows and a doorway in both its north and south walls. Above the narthex are three lancets and a good rose window with cogwheel-like tracery, set within a Gothic-arched surround with a hood mould. The gable end is surmounted by a tall gabled bell-cote with coped verges and has a single bell. The body of the church is of nine bays, mostly defined by shallow buttresses. Both the north and south aisles, which are set back slightly at the west end, have a pointed window with plate tracery facing west. The south elevation has a three-light trefoil-headed window towards its west end, to the right of which is the projecting south porch which has chamfered mouldings and stops to the entrance and a statue niche above the doorway. There are paired lancet windows to the other bays of the south aisle, except at the chancel end. The north elevation has similar window openings and two doorways both with hood moulds. The sanctuary has larger single lancets to both its north and south walls, while the east elevation is buttressed with two window openings and a doorway to the basement and a small lancet in the gable; it is otherwise blank.

The interior comprises nave, chancel, north and south aisles, with an organ chamber and the original vestry loft beyond the east end of the north aisle. Both the nave and chancel are spanned by a steeply pitched scissor-braced roof, springing from corbels; the timbers in the chancel are painted and stencilled. The nave arcades are pointed arches carried on pairs of slender columns of polished Devon limestone with carved capitals, resting on tall stone plinths. At the east end of the south aisle is the Lady Chapel; here the roof timbers are carried on carved foliate corbels and there is a decorative timber screen between the Chapel and the choir. The internal decoration increases in richness from the west to the east, culminating in the altar and the sumptuous reredos in the sanctuary. There is no chancel arch; instead a crenellated rood-beam marks the division. The chancel is reached via a flight of four steps set between a low stone cancellus pierced with quatrefoils with decorative brass gates; a further six steps lead to the altar. The mid-19th century fittings include an octagonal font of pink marble resting on a cluster of green marble shafts, an integral carved stone pulpit, and a stone reredos of nine Gothic arches divided by red marble colonettes, with an elaborate canopy of the central three bays, and painted panels in the apertures. The windows in the west end and some in the south aisle contain stained glass; the pews date from the late 19th century.

The church is bounded to the south and west by a low wall of chert rubble which is topped with simple railings along the west side. Close to the north west corner of the church is a war memorial in the form of a timber Calvary cross. The separate church hall, formerly a schoolroom, is later in date than the church and is not of special interest, but it is of local significance for its connection with the church and its positive streetscape value.