CHARD Museum is set to take centre stage in a new documentary to be shown on BBC One this week.

TV crews from Somerset-based media company Grace Productions took over the High Street building for two days to shoot parts of a new documentary series titled ‘Invented in…’.

The show will travel around UK with each region being shown their home inventors’ achievements on Friday, June 23.

Somerset viewers will get to see silver medal-winning Paralympian and presenter Kate Grey tell the story of Chard’s Victorian shoemaker turned inventor and innovator, James Gillingham, as he created the first artificial limbs, and the advances the world of prosthetic limbs has made in the 21st century.

Chard Museum is entirely run by volunteers and also features an exhibition on the inventor of powered flight, John Stringfellow.

Derek Coaker, one of the volunteers, said: “They have been here filming about John Gillingham and they were here for a few days. It is a proper 30-minute documentary, not just a clip from Chard.”

“It is going to be on BBC One and it is all on the works and times of John Gillingham. He is one of Chard’s more forgotten men and he often takes a back seat to Stringfellow.

“Ever since the Paralympics in London in 2012, we have been getting more and more people visiting the exhibition.”

Ray Tostevin, the creative director from Grace Productions, first contacted the museum in search of local Victorian inventors and following a number of conversations decided he had to visit Chard Museum.

With the increase in popularity of the Paralympics and the increased awareness of charities such as Help for Heroes, Mr Tostevin decided to focus the documentary on artificial limbs.

In 1863, Chard was celebrating the marriage of the Prince of Wales, when a canon misfired badly and Will Singleton had his arm badly shattered and it had to be amputated.

Three years later, Singleton called at the Golden Boot in Chard’s High Street where James Gillingham ran a shoemaking business, when Gillingham offered to make him an artificial arm, at no cost.

By 1903 Gillingham had treated more than 7,000 patients and throughout the world wars many ex-servicemen received limbs made in Chard.

Gillingham died in 1924 and the business closed in 1960s.

Cllr Amanda Broom said: “It is fantastic that Chard’s amazing history will be highlighted again on national TV.

“Kate was enthralled with the pioneering work of James Gillingham, and the filming will highlight yet again, how incredibly innovative Chard has been.

“We have so much heritage to be proud of in the town and the museum is the perfect place to find out more.”