Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for CHESHAM

CHESHAM, a town, a parish, and a sub-district, in Amersham district, Bucks. The town stands on the river Chess, near its head, 2½ miles N by E of Amersham, and 5¼ SSW of Berkhampstead r. station. It consists chiefly of three streets; and has a post office‡ under Amersham, a banking office, two chief inns, a town-hall, a temperance-hall, a parish church, five dissenting chapels, a mechanics' institute, almshouses, and an endowed school. The church is ancient and cruciform; and has a tomb by Bacon. Total endowed charities, £100. A weekly market is held on Wednesday; fairs are held on 21 April, 22 July, 28 Sept., and the 2d Wednesday of Nov.; and manufactures are carried on it shoes, strawplait, silk, paper, malt liquors, and flour. Real property, £5, 483. Pop., 2, 208. Houses, 477.—The parish includes also the hamlets of Asheridge, Ashley-Green, Bellingdon, Botley, Charteridge, Hundridge. Latimer, and Waterside. Acres, 12, 657. Real property, £24, 473. Pop., 5, 985. Houses, 1, 260. The property is not much divided. Chesham Hall, Blackwell Hall, and Latimer House are chief residences. A mineral spring, of some medicinal repute, is at a short distance from the town. Remains of a Danish fort, with walls and moat in tolerable preservation, are at Grove-farm. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford. Value, £453.* Patron, the Duke of Bedford. Another vicarage, called Christchurch, was constituted in 1867; and the patrons of it are Lord Chesham and others. Baptist chapels are in three of the hamlets. -The sub-district contains also Chesham-Bois. Pop., 6, 203.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a town, a parish, and a sub-district"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Chesham AP/CP       Chesham SubD       Amersham RegD/PLU       Buckinghamshire AncC
Place: Chesham

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