Winter 2020 Established 1957 Compliments of the Season

The Chesham Society £1 when sold

Volume 165 Winter 2020 Established 1957 Compliments of the season

In Page this 2 Chairman’s reportissue Notice of the 2021 AGM

Page 3 Editor’s letter Welcome to the committee

Page 4 HS2 - on the front line Another fine performance

Page 5 Dr Henry Rumsey, Chesham’s forgotten pioneer The Iron Hospital

Page 6 A dog is not just for Christmas

Page 7 Christmas cheer

Page 8 The policeman and the prince

Page 9 Shot in Chesham

Page 10 Let the bells ring out for Christmas We remember

Page 11 Shop locally for Christmas Matilda’s Christmas quiz

Page 12 A walk in the park Join the Society Contacts and credits

Putting Cheshamwww.cheshamsociety.org.uk first www.facebook.com/cheshamsociety @cheshamsociety The Chesham Society WINTER 2020 Chairman’s report Once again, the Editor believes that the membership should be cheered up, this time for the festive season. In our last issue, I did my best and listed several ‘reasons to be cheerful’ so let’s take stock again. By the time you read this, will the lockdown have Our committee is spread been extended or will end as advertised - only to rather thin at the moment, be replaced by tier 99 restrictions? Will Santa Claus so we will be taking this have to self-isolate? Only time will tell. opportunity to persuade fresh faces to join us. We There has been some good news since the have specific vacancies on last issue … the committee for Events, Publicity and Planning,

Covid Vaccines? but all new recruits are very welcome. If you The unlamented Chiltern and South Bucks local would like to know more about any of these posts, plan has been withdrawn, to be succeeded by a contact me or anyone on the committee – our plan for the new Bucks authority which should details are on the back cover. provide more scope for preserving Green Belt Finally, thank you all for your support during these sites. difficult times. Like everyone, we have been sorry All the rainfall is recharging the Aquifer nicely. to put our 2020 events on hold, but we look … and all four editions of this year’s Focus have forward to rolling them out in the not-too-distant won through, slightly against the odds. future. As you see (below) the 2021 AGM will soon be Cheers and all good wishes for a brighter New upon us. Hopefully we will be able to hold it in the Year! Town Hall as planned but if not, there is a Plan B. Jim Conboy Notice of Annual General Meeting of The Chesham Society Registered charity number 1083213

Members are invited to receive the report of the ofﬁ cers and the Society’s accounts for the year ending 31 December 2020 at the Society’s Annual General Meeting to be held at 19:30pm on Thursday 28 January 2021 in the Council Chamber, Chesham Town Hall. This is a ‘Covid free’ environment, so currently subject to restrictions. Nominations are invited for members to serve as Trustees on the Executive Committee. Members are invited to nominate themselves or other members (with their consent) for any of the positions. All current Officers and Trustees, as listed on the back cover, are standing for re-election. Nominations should be sent to the Secretary (by Email) ten days before the meeting, and will also be accepted from the floor on the evening – see http://www. cheshamsociety.org.uk/JoinUs.htm for the nomination form. A ballot will then be held to elect the officers and committee, and reappoint the external auditor. In the event that continuing Covid restrictions prevent us from holding an AGM open to all members wishing to attend, the committee may decide to defer the meeting until that becomes possible. Should that be the case, we will notify members by Email or post. See our website for the latest information. Dr James Conboy Chairman, The Chesham Society

2 Putting Chesham first Focus Winter 2020

Editor’s letter To celebrate the season of good cheer, we bring you a slimline Focus with some cosy fi re-side reading. Troublesome topics have largely been set aside, with the exception HS2 whose ravages seem all-too-likely to continue under cover of Christmas. Our contributors are already mapping out ideas for forthcoming editions of Focus. As well as covering planning and other issues concerning the well-being of the town, we will be featuring a lively mix of subjects This nostalgic view of Chesham High Street was taken touching on Chesham past, present and circa 1950 - when Climate Change was yet unknown! future. There will be local interviews and profi les, more focus on local buildings and businesses and a fresh look at the arts. We also hope to give wider coverage to things of interest in our neighbouring villages, home to a growing number of Chesham Society members. Fingers crossed that the mysterious Matilda will also rouse herself suffi ciently to submit the quarterly quiz that tests our knowledge of the town. The New Year will welcome some new contributors to Focus. One of these is Peter Hawkes, of Hawkes Design and Publishing, who was gifted the extensive Ray East Collection of black-and-white photographs, most of which were taken in and around Chesham in the early 1900s. Each edition of Focus will feature Peter’s selection from that invaluable archive. As a taste of what the Ray East Collection has in store, we are featuring a few of the images here. We are most grateful to Peter for allowing us to share them with you. Jean Slater Welcome to the committee! We are delighted to report that Deborah Wilbee has been co-opted to the committee of The Chesham Society, where she will be bringing us up to speed on social media. Deborah owns and runs The Cupboard in Blucher Street and she volunteered her services after reading the little write-up on the shop which was included in the last edition of Focus. Rest assured that our usual Chesham’s younger residents whose enthusiasm must means of communication sustain the society in future years. This time last year, with members (website, many of our older members would have shuddered at the email and snail-mail) will not thought of Facebook and other adventurous apps, but since change. However, since the then necessity and Zoom have taught many an old dog new relaunch of the Society in tricks. We therefore hope that more activity on social media 2019, we have been looking will be of interest to us all. for ways to reach a wider audience and keep existing Deborah’s enterprise and energy are wonderfully suited to members up to date. the task of putting us on the social media map. We are most Social media is clearly the way forward, especially with grateful to her for stepping forward.

www.cheshamsociety.org.uk www.facebook.com/cheshamsociety @cheshamsociety 3 The Chesham Society HS2 - on the front line While this issue is largely written to spread Christmas Cheer, reality has the unfortunate habit of intruding. The HS2 armies have now broken out of their enclave above Great Missenden, and spilled out along the line towards Wendover. The results are not pretty, and while Lowndes Park is not threatened, the AONB is our backyard – one reason why Chesham is a special place. The destruction currently underway will not help the economic recovery from Covid. However, only half the wood is under the control of HS2, and the protest camp continues in the remainder, owned by the Liberty family. HS2 have placed a fence down the middle of the wood to protect their section, occupied by security staff living in B&Q gazebos 24/7.

Battle of the Bats

Grim’s Ditch Grim’s Ditch is an earthwork believed to date from the middle Bronze Age. After surviving 3500 years, it is about to be obliterated by HS2, as the cutting passes through the northern end of the feature. The first phase of destruction was the removal of the holly and beechwood covering the site, in preparation for archaeological investigations. During the occupation, the protestors (aided by Cambridge Natural History Society) identified Barbastelle bats roosting in the wood – a protected species, which HS2 do not have a license to disturb. Any tree felling, or disturbance of the bats, would be a wildlife crime and HS2 has undertaken not to proceed further until the required surveys have been carried out. As HS2 has a history of ‘accidentally’ felling trees and hedges when it suits them, this doesn’t inspire confidence. At the time of writing, the Chiltern Society, the Conservation Jones Hill Wood Board and Lord Hague have all written letters in support of Is a small ancient woodland, between Bowood Lane and the bats. HS2 could save nearly all the wood, and the bats, Durham Farm. It briefly featured in the national press when the by using a retaining wall rather than a 50m wide cutting. Will tree dwelling protestors were evicted (with some violence) sense prevail? See the news pages at hs2amersham.org.uk to and ‘Swampy’, a veteran of the Newbury bypass protests, got follow developments. himself arrested (for old times’ sake). Photographs by Chartridge Photographic Jim Conboy Another fine performance Geoffrey Palmer, who lived at The Lee, was a staunch opponent of HS2. He gave his time freely and generously to the Stop HS2 campaign. The footage that he appeared in, or voiced, is available on the Stop HS2 website. Take a moment to enjoy his rendering of A Poem for Dave at http://stophs2. org/news/13573-poem-dave. It is Geoffrey at his best.

4 Putting Chesham first Focus Winter 2020 Dr Henry Rumsey, Chesham’s forgotten pioneer Henry Wyldbore Rumsey was born in Chesham in 1809. His grandfather practiced medicine here in the eighteenth century and was succeeded by his son, who was “almost the only surgeon within that distance from London who ventured to perform capital operations”. Henry took over the practice at the age of 22, subsequently becoming Gloucester’s cholera inspector, “entailing the loss of his own health”. His obituary in the British Medical Journal in 1876 pays tribute to him as “a man of peculiarly high intelligence, with an unrivalled knowledge of the Blucher Street with The Star pub in 1903 © The Ray East principles of private medicine and the original genius Collection. Star Yard saw one of the worst outbreaks of the in developing and applying them. He had a profound Chesham Plague enthusiasm for humanitarian progress. To him, State Medicine was not a word; it was the central idea of his waggons on 13th October for erection behind the Cottage life. Preventive legislation was not a dream - it was the imperative Hospital. Measuring 50ft x 20ft, the Iron Hospital opened on necessity of the century, the ensign of our progress, the duty 28th October with one ward to accommodate circa 20 patients. of our civilisation. For forty years, the name of Henry Rumsey In 1892 the Iron Hospital was sold for £35 17s, to be resurrected was identified with the national sanitary movement of which he in 1900 on pasture-land in the Vale, with an ambulance station was a recognised and influential leader. Of the many who now for horse-drawn vehicles behind it. Known now as the Isolation devote themselves to the quasi-popular subject of public health, Hospital, it was painted red and used sporadically for cases of few know how much they are indebted to him”. scarlet fever and other outbreaks until 1930, after which patients were sent to Stoke Mandeville. The former Iron Hospital was The Iron Hospital rented out as Nos 1 and 2 Hospital Cottages, which were Throughout Dr Rumsey’s lifetime, Chesham was only too demolished and replaced by bungalows in 1969. familiar with epidemics. In 1866, fear of a possible cholera outbreak prompted Lord Chesham, Dr Faithorn and the Rev Three nurses summoned from London during the Chesham Frederick Aylward, the vicar of St Mary’s Church, to outline plans Plague fell victim to the typhoid. So too did Dr Faithorn and for an isolation hospital for contagious diseases. The Cottage the Rev Aylward; they are commemorated in the names of Hospital opened on 30th October 1869 with 7 beds and a cot Faithorn Close and Aylward Gardens off Chartridge Lane. – but it did not accept infectious patients. In 1871, the town was Bevan Hill off Asheridge Road remembers Nye Bevan, struck by the Chesham Plague, a typhoid outbreak traced to two Welsh tramps who frequented the Star and Garter beer- creator of the NHS, who lived at Asheridge Farm from 1954 house in Church Street. From here it spread to the cottages in until his death in 1960. In his speech on the eve of the launch Hearn’s Yard off Bury Lane, to Church Street and the insanitary of the NHS, Bevan famously called the Tory Party “lower dwellings of Star Yard. than vermin”. He nevertheless got on well with his Chesham The need for isolation was urgent. A prefabricated iron building neighbours, whom he joked might accept him if he lived here was despatched by rail from London to Berkhamsted (our another twenty years. nearest station) and was delivered to Chesham by farmers’ Jean Slater

www.cheshamsociety.org.uk www.facebook.com/cheshamsociety @cheshamsociety 5 The Chesham Society A dog is not just for Christmas Charities everywhere are going through a challenging time. We asked The Chilterns Dog Rescue Society to tell us how they have fared in this extraordinary year. The Chilterns Dog Rescue Society (CDRS) was founded in 1963 by Mrs Dolly Bromley after she found a small dog tied up and abandoned in Amersham. Dolly refused to accept that A Centre of Excellence Jenny, as she called her, would be put to sleep for rescue and rehoming if unclaimed after seven days, so she set about finding her a loving home. This one small dog became the Teddy catalyst for a dedicated group of animal lovers to help other dogs in distress and was the start of CDRS which, until

Gyp & Peg

Calla volunteers, the charity continues to thrive although, as everyone is saying, ‘It’s been a year like no other.’ Businesses are facing unprecedented challenges and CDRS has 1985, was known as the Amersham and Chesham not been immune to these pressures. The and District Dog Rescue and Welfare Society. Soon Rescue Centre went into lockdown at all lost and unwanted dogs in the area were being the end of March, reopening in a limited referred to CDRS and, to date, well over 20,000 dogs capacity in mid-June, only to close to all have been rescued and homed. but emergencies in November. All annual For many years CDRS leased kennels in Flaunden fund-raising events for the year including and then Ashley Green. In 2009, the Society achieved Open Days, Dog Show, Quiz Nights and its dream of buying its own premises, which backs onto the Cream Teas had to be cancelled. Wendover Woods, in Chivery near Tring. In 2013, planning Although income has been significantly impacted, there has permission was granted to build a Rescue Centre with been an ongoing requirement for a small team of key workers carefully designed facilities for rescue dogs. Now CDRS has to be maintained at the Rescue Centre. Fortunately CDRS created a Centre of Excellence for rescue and rehoming, was able to foster a number of dogs during the lockdowns attained a 5-star boarding licence and offers accredited but there has been a steady stream of dogs in and out of behavioural training to owners and their dogs in need of the Rescue Centre as the CDRS team responded to calls additional support. for help that could not be ignored. In the main, these were Covid-related situations where the owner of the dog had “A year like no other” become unwell or sadly passed away, some being local dogs Thanks to the skill and experience of its staff and the homed by CDRS in the past two to ten years, as well as dedication and enthusiasm of loyal supporters and others that were unfamiliar.

6 Putting Chesham first Focus Winter 2020

Like many rescue organisations, CDRS had anticipated a potential adopters who have Dinky rise in intake enquiries from people who acquired a puppy registered their interest in during lockdown but have since found that this was not homing a rescue dog will have the right decision or dog for them. This has slowly started their patience rewarded by a to materialise and, as time goes on, the pandemic is having new friend before too long. an increasing impact in other ways, with economic, housing If you would like to know and social factors being more about the rescue and cited by people who need Tilly rehoming work of CDRS or to give up their dogs. wish to become a member or sponsor, please contact Looking ahead us on 01296 623885 or by As the country still strives Email at [email protected]. to get back to a new uk. A donation to help dogs normal, it is impossible to in need can be made online predict what the new year to: holds but we enter 2021 in the hope it will be a CAF Bank better year for everyone. Sort code 40-52- 40 CDRS is ready to receive Account number 0000 7243 dogs of a variety of ages, types and backgrounds All gifts, large or small, are very much appreciated. in the coming weeks and Thank you! Sara Muncke GoDT(MT) MCFBA months. Whatever the reason, dog owners who need to part with their dog can be assured they will get the very best Rescue Centre Manager help from CDRS and the rehoming team are hopeful that Christmas cheer

The lights are on and the tree is up. Behind the scenes, Chesham’s tireless volunteers have been busy with their preparations to bring us all some Christmas cheer.

Santa’s sleigh the Big Community Take Away has been on its volunteers to ensure that all the rounds, with Christmas Party guests will have a Santa waving as he passes hot Christmas dinner delivered to them, and to 200 residents through, and The Chiltern Toy Bank has helped to fill a whom they will be supporting. It’s hoped that deliveries can bumper batch of Christmas stockings. By early November, also include a food goody bag and a Christmas present from the elves had received “enough toys for practically every the Mayor. As Party guests will miss the company this year, toddler and young child in the county”. At the Elgiva, there are plans for each of them to receive a friendly phone socially-distanced volunteers have been holding decorating call on Christmas Day. sessions in readiness for The Sleeping Beauty because – to Of course, the Chesham Coronavirus Helpline on 0800 246 quote manager David Cooper, “Christmas isn’t Christmas 1618 is still hard at work as well, supporting the community without a panto.” by shopping, delivering medical prescriptions and friendly The Chiltern Foodbank, The Lions Club and Restore Hope chats by phone. Do get in touch if you, or someone you are amongst those distributing food parcels - particularly know needs help – the line is open Monday to Friday 09.00 welcome at Christmas. Whist there can be no Christmas Party – 18.00. This group is supported by the Rotary Club of at the McMinn Centre this year, organisers have joined with Chesham, Buckinghamshire Council and Chiltern Chamber.

www.cheshamsociety.org.uk www.facebook.com/cheshamsociety @cheshamsociety 7 The Chesham Society The policeman and the prince: how a strange encounter led to a lifetime’s research One afternoon in the late 1950s, young PC John Pearson was on the beat in Chesham Broadway. Whilst chatting to his old form master, he turned to see a startling ﬁ gure approaching. It was a 6ft 3” black man dressed in an embroidered jacket and baggy pantaloons, a headdress of ostrich feathers and a necklace of lions’ paws and other lucky charms. “Who in the Dickens was that in all that regalia?” he demanded.

several marriages, a fortune won and lost on the turf and his many means of scraping a living, from the chorus line of an all-black West End musical to lion taming or pulling teeth. The ‘national treasure’ who always made people smile, died on Valentines’ Day 1965. The story goes that he choked on a strawberry cream from a box of Black Magic, a present from a racing correspondent.

Still hungry for information A betting man would have known at once, for this This October, when Black History Month sparked fresh flamboyant figure was Peter Carl McKay, aka the self- interest in Monolulu, the media turned to John Pearson as styled Ras Prince Monolulu, the tipster whose cry of an authority on the subject. Inspired by that chance meeting “I gotta ‘orse, I gotta ‘orse” drew the crowds at race on Broadway, John has been researching Monolulu’s story courses across the country. On this throughout his retirement, gathering occasion, Monolulu was asking the information from contacts around the way to Chesham’s Drill Hall, en-route “I can’t believe that world. A hot tip came from an airhostess to a Burma Star Association reunion. who happened to glimpse Monolulu’s For John Pearson, that strange after so many years I’m Danish passport on a flight to Paris; from encounter sparked a fascination that still finding out bits and this, John discovered that Peter Carl has lasted a lifetime. McKay was actually born in St Croix in pieces,” he says. “He was what were then the Danish Virgin Islands. A self-made celebrity such a unique character Armed with this information, he went on Monolulu was more than a tipster with to contact Monolulu’s grand-daughter, an eye for costume. From the 1920s to he would make a fine whom he has visited in the Virgin Islands, the 1960s he appeared in magazines, musical.” and his grandson in Sweden, whom he on newsreels, films and radio and was is helping to fill the gaps in his famous one of the first black men to appear on grandfather’s history. The absorbing British TV. His fame spread to America, journey of discovery is not over yet. “I where he appeared on TV with Groucho Marx. When the can’t believe that after so many years I’m still finding out Second World War broke out, he was one of the first public bits and pieces,” he says. “He was such a unique character figures to appear in a newsreel encouraging the British public he would make a fine musical.” Remember, you heard it here to carry gas masks. His likeness appeared in the National first! Portrait Gallery and on cigarette cards. In London, a pub and Hear more from John Pearson in The Prince a development of flats were named after him. Monolulu Quandry from The Archive – BBC Radio 4. Monolulu’s autobiography supposedly filled in the picture: Last broadcast in 2017, the programme is available his birth in Ethiopia; exciting times in foreign countries; on https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0855vz8.

8 Putting Chesham first Focus Winter 2020 Shot in Chesham The latest short ﬁ lm by director Mary Waireri, A Winter Barbecue (2020), was shot on location in Chesham. Released online in March this year, just after the country went into lockdown, it tells the bleak but heartwarming story of a father who cooks a family feast on the most important day of their lives. It prompted the contributor to consider other productions that have used the town for location scenes over the years.

Above: John Thaw and Richard Grifﬁ ths, “Canon” of St Mary’s Church Left: Stanley Baxter bombing about in Bucks Below: Benedict Cumberbatch outside 58 Church Street The location was convenient because the film was made at Independent Artists Studios in Beaconsfield. Given that Beaconsfield, Elstree, Pinewood and Ealing Studios are not a million miles away, Many of us - particularly those it’s not surprising that our in the Old Town - remember well The neck of the woods crops Imitation Game (2014) being filmed in up in their films from time and around Church Street (did Members to time. who saw the film notice that when Joan Thus it’s unsurprising looks out her window at Alan Turing that Chesham features before he is to climb in, there is a security in TV programmes too, wire across the window. Alan then climbs seemingly cornering the into the window and the wire has suddenly location market in crime, disappeared?). popping up as it does in Like The Imitation Game, the 1962 film Midsomer Murders, Inspector Morse and The The Password is Courage (1962), is also set during the Second Professionals. More recently one of the locations for the World War and the principle characters Charlie and Irena, first episode of Doctor Foster (2015) was the Chess Medical played by Dirk Bogarde and Maria Perschy, can be seen Centre, while Black Mirror: The National Anthem (2011) strolling along the same stretch of Church Street. The film, included a scene shot in Chesham Broadway where, in the in which British N.C.O. Sergeant Major Charles Coward run-up to Christmas, Prime Minister Michael Callow (played (Dirk Bogarde) escaped from the Stalag VIII-B P.O.W. camp by Rory Kinnear, who also appeared in The Imitation Game) and were then mistakenly awarded with the Iron Cross by is woken up and shown a disturbing video. On it he sees the Germans, is worth seeking out on DVD. that the “people’s princess” Susannah of Beaumont has been abducted and will allegedly be murdered unless he has Apart from IMDb - Internet Movie Database - there’s a good sex with a pig on live television. Gripping in so many ways. website called reelstreets.com that shows locations in films and compares them to how the locations (if they still exist) You can watch Mary Wairei’s film A Winter Barbecue for look today. A cursory search brings up The Fast Lady (1962), free on YouTube by visiting https://www.youtube.com/ starring Leslie Phillips, Julie Christie and James Robertson watch?v=cAR3RSn62kY. Black Mirror: The National Anthem is Justice in a scene in which Murdoch Troon, played by Stanley available on Netflix. Baxter, is learning to drive up and down Chesham Road. Gerry Grifﬁ n

www.cheshamsociety.org.uk www.facebook.com/cheshamsociety @cheshamsociety 9 The Chesham Society We remember Left: The Great War: Chesham’s Victory Parade Right: November 11th 2020

Let the bells ring out for Christmas! Most of us – religious or not – delight in the sound of church bells. For generations, the bells of St Mary’s in Chesham have played a signiﬁ cant role in our lives, marking national and personal milestones and ringing out for key celebrations such as Christmas. As in many Anglican For the first time since WWII, in common churches throughout with most churches across the UK, the the UK, the bellringers of St bells have been silenced by the pandemic. Mary’s produce the familiar peals by ‘ringing the We are looking forward to them ringing out again. Fingers changes’ on full-circle tower bells. The tradition of crossed that will be soon. change-ringing dates from the early 17th century when bellringers found that swinging a bell through They come upon the midnight clear a full circle gave more control over the time Bells or no bells, we are currently able to enjoy the chimes between strikes of the clapper, thus enabling them of St Mary’s clock. to introduce the different striking sequences, or The clock was installed in 1728, with faces on the south and ‘changes’. east sides of the tower. Housed in a chamber between the Images: one of St Mary’s six full-circle bells and the bellringers and the bells, its ancient mechanism needs to 18th-century clock mechanism be wound several times a week. The complicated-looking In November’s lockdown, our clock chimes were back in contraption of cogs and gears generally works very well, action. The chimes sound every quarter hour and at noon although it can be subject to atmospheric changes which and midnight, when we are treated to a tune – the opening have been known to affect the accuracy of the clock. bars of a salutary hymn. The Victorian congregation would The clock chimes were added to commemorate Queen have known the words, which begin ‘Days and moments Victoria’s Golden Jubilee and were first heard on October 20th quickly flying, blend the living with the dead; Soon will you 1890. During the first lockdown, the chimes of this and most be and I lying each with our narrow bed’. Let’s leave it at church clocks with hand-wound bells were silenced and the only that! bells heard were those with electrically-wound mechanisms. Photos © St Mary’s Church

10 Putting Chesham first Focus Winter 2020 Shop locally for Christmas Our High Street has a marvellous mix of independent and corporate shops, the essential and the eccentric, charities and businesses, ﬁ nancial services and frivolous 11 fun. We hope you will be able to use them all in this ﬁ nal run-up to Christmas.

1 Whilst doing so, how many of their shopfronts can you recognise from the cropped photos? Answers in the next issue.

6 10

3 Christmas Quiz 2 Set by Mathilda The Editorial Team has successfully woken up Mathilda to compile these Yuletide quizzes. The first letter of each answer spells a particularly 8 Festive word. 4 Established in 1869 by public subscription, with seven beds and a cot Outfitters and drapers demolished to build the original High Street Waitrose Chart or Ash?

The George and Dragon, or The Crown in the 9 High Street from at least the 17th century The only Grade I-listed building in town 5 Accessed by Baines Walk

It has five termini

Founded by John Weedon in Red Lion Street, in 1623, still going strong It’s been Red and Mad!

www.cheshamsociety.org.uk www.facebook.com/cheshamsociety @cheshamsociety 11 The Chesham Society A walk in the park Over the Christmas and New Year period, Lowndes Park is the perfect place for a gentle stroll – with or without a dog. If you haven’t done so already, stop and look at the excellent information board near the pudding stone, on the lower boundary of the Chiltern Hills Academy. The Chesham Revealed Historical Timeline traces the development of the town from 10000 BC to 2000 AD, in a wonderfully easy form. The history can be read roughly from right to left, from the earliest settlers in Stratford’s Yard and the cultivated strips of medieval farmers on the Balks, through to Victorian Newtown, the early 20th century housing estates and the modern avenues and hilltop housing. For the many local sponsors, this looks like money well spent! Left: Lowndes Park circa 1770 Join the Chesham Society Membership of the Chesham Society begins at just £12 a year. To join the Society, contact our Membership Secretary, Richard Gamester, at the email given below or download a membership form from our website: www.cheshamsociety.org.uk/JoinUs.htm The Chesham Society £1 when sold Putting Chesham first President: Helen Salisbury 07940 803463 E: [email protected] Chairman: Jim Conboy 07730 230405 E: [email protected] Vice Chairman: Jean Slater E: [email protected] Honorary Secretary: John Graves E: [email protected] Treasurer: Gerry Grifﬁ n E: [email protected] Design & layout: Andy Roker Membership secretary: Richard Gamester E: [email protected] T: 01494 775489 E: [email protected] Social Media: Deborah Wilbee Photography: Contributors Committee Member Mora Walker Printed by: Ink Link, Not serving on the committee: Unit 4, Waterside Business Park Planning: Nicolas Moss E: [email protected] Waterside, Chesham, Archivist Dr Angela Bishop Buckinghamshire HP5 1PE Focus Editor: Jean Slater E: [email protected] T: 01494 791320 E: [email protected] Publicity: Vacant W: www.inklinkprinters.co.uk Website: www.cheshamsociety.org.uk

12 12 Putting Cheshamwww.cheshamsociety.org.uk first www.facebook.com/cheshamsociety @cheshamsociety