20 and 22, High Street

Nos. 20 and 22 High Street is an inn that is now part of the museum. It dates from the late 16th century to early 17th century and has undergone later alterations. The building is constructed of coursed flint and limestone rubble, featuring painted stone lintels with keystones on the ground floor. It has a three-unit through-passage plan and stands two storeys high with a three-window range. The first floor includes two-light casements, each with four panes, set under wooden lintels. The ground floor of No. 22, on the left, has a keyed stone lintel above a central 20th-century door, flanked by two enlarged 19th-century sash windows with 4/4 panes; there is a carriage entry to the right.

Inside, the ground floor retains an open fireplace with an oak lintel at the front of the left party wall. Stop-chamfered beams are present on either side of the former through-passage; the left beam has mortices for former studding, with some wattle-and-daub preserved as an exhibit. Notches cut into the rear end of the former door jambs indicate where an arch was once located. The first floor features a rear stack for an open fireplace with an oak lintel and wide oak floorboards in the central room. The building has a thatch roof, which continues with the neighbouring Chard Museum, a Grade II* listed structure, although it is not accessible. Historically, this building was known as the New Inn.