Chesham, Buckinghamshire

Description
Chesham, a market-town and a parish in Bucks. The town stands on the river Chess, near its head, 2 1/4 miles N by E from Amersham. It has a station on the Metropolitan Extension railway, and a post, money order, and telegraph office (R.S.O.) It is governed by a local board of nine members formed in 1885, is well drained, and is supplied with water from an artesian well bored about 160 feet into the chalk. The industries include brewing, shoemaking, brickmaking, flour-milling, the breeding of ducks, and the manufacture of chairs, bowls, dairy utensils, children's toys, cricket bats, &c., from beechwood, which is largely grown in the neighbourhood. There are also engineering factories. The church is an ancient cruciform structure, chiefly in the Perpendicular style. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford; net yearly value, £244 with residence. There is a mission room, erected in 1887, and several Baptist and Congregational chapels, and a Friends meeting-house. The town-hall is an oblong structure of brick supported on arches, the open part below being used as a market. A weekly market for corn and cattle is held on Wednesdays, and annual fairs on April 21, July 22, and Sept. 28. The parish includes the ecclesiastical parishes of Ashley Green and Latimer (noticed under separate headings), and the hamlets of Asheridge,. Bellingdon, Botley, Charteridge, Hundridge, and Waterside. Asheridge, which commences at the edge of the town, extends a distance of about 4 miles to the NW. It has a Congregational chapel. Bellingdon is about 2 miles from the town, towards the NW. Botley extends for about 2 miles along the high road to Hemel Hempstead. It has a Baptist chapel. Charteridge commences at the verge of the town, and extends about 3^ miles in a north-westerly direction on the road to Aylesbury. It also has a Baptist chapel. Hun-dridge is on the high road to Great Missenden. The hamlet of Waterside, which is on the hanks of the Chess, was formed into an ecclesiastical parish in 1867. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of Oxford ; gross yearly value, £180 with residence. The church, a building of flint and stone in the Early English and Decorated styles, was consecrated in 1864. The area of the parish is 12,746 acres; population, 8018. The Bury and Germans are chief residences.