Drone survey in Chard

Chard sits on a ridge above the Axe and Isle valleys, high enough that it holds snow and frost longer than the surrounding lowland. Streams either side of the main street run to opposite coasts, which is the local curiosity and also a fair description of how exposed the position is.

Longer frost periods mean more freeze and thaw cycles on the same mortar, and snow lying on a roof puts load on it and then melts into every gap as it goes. Both shorten the life of bedding and pointing, so the sensible inspection interval here is shorter than for a town in a valley twenty miles away.

The long Georgian and Victorian high street has hamstone and rendered frontages, with hamstone-bedded ridges on the older buildings. Hamstone weathers softly and pleasantly, but the same softness means bedding and detailing wear rather than fail, and the process is gradual.

That is a good subject for photography. A soft, gradual change is hard to notice from one year to the next by eye and easy to see in two images taken a few years apart, which is an argument for a record rather than a one-off visit.

Terraced lace-mill housing runs off the high street, with extensive post-war and modern estates on the lower slopes. The terraces have shared arrangements and the estates are conventional concrete tile, so the two produce different enquiries.

The lower slopes are noticeably less exposed than the ridge, which again means that where a property sits matters more than what it is made of.

A ridge-top town has no sheltered side. Wind arrives from wherever it happens to be coming from that week, and a roof detailed for the prevailing direction is at some point going to meet the opposite one.

For flying, the practical result is that conditions here are less predictable than at lower altitude and a job is better booked to a window than to a morning. There is no shortage of open ground, so the constraint is the weather rather than the geography.

Chard Reservoir and the countryside around Snowdon Hill give the town an open setting, and properties on the approaches are as exposed as the ridge itself. Forde Abbey and the older buildings nearby are a reminder of how much historic fabric sits in this corner of Somerset.

For a TA20 enquiry the useful distinction is between the high street, which is dense and built up, and the surrounding properties, which are open and often set in their own ground. The first is a flying problem and the second is a weather one.

Snow is worth a mention because it is unusual in this coverage area. Load on a roof and meltwater finding every gap are both real here in a way they are not at sea level, and they are worth checking for after a hard spell.