 |
 |
Chalfont St Peter History
Documents
History
This history of Chalfont St Peter was written by Pamela Bacon
and appeared in the 2002-2003 Chalfont St Peter Village Guide:
1894 - In March, 1894, Parliament passed a bill establishing
elected parish councils throughout England and Wales for all
parishes with a population over 300. Membership of these
councils was open to all male parochial electors with a
residence qualification of one year. In Chalfont St Peter, with
its population of 1,500, there was a flurry of electioneering
meetings by the candidates leading up to the polling day on 18th
December, when the required nine members would be elected. Of
course, each candidate promised to bend his best endeavours for
the good of the Parish! The elected members met on the 31 st
December 1894, to swear the oath of office and to elect the
Chairman and other officers.
Frederick Penton, as a recently appointed Sheriff of
Buckinghamshire, was elected Chairman with Charles Moore, Lord
of the Manor, as vice Chairman. John Collins became Clerk and
John Bell, William Freeman, William Gurney, James McPherson and
Perey Walsh completed the original council. The ninth member,
Richard Russell was co opted in January 1895.
The over riding task of the first meetings was to administer the
local charities and to oversee the poor. In the parish, there
were two charities; the more important being one set up in the
will of Maria Taylor who died in 1824, whereby the poor of the
village would receive a gift of clothes and fuel annually, to be
administered by two overseers' of the parish Church. The task
was transferred to the Parish Council in 1897 and it still
administers the charity by investing any bequests and profits of
village events (such as the recent Centenary Celebrations) into
the fund which is apportioned to the most needy each year in the
form of cash. It was envisaged that the Parish Church Council
should continue to administer the ecclesiastical side of the
parish while the newly elected Parish Council should handle
civic affairs.
1895 - At first, the Council was called irregularly, whenever
problems arose in the village; but early in 1895 the meetings
became monthly as responsibility for the upkeep of the River
Misbourne, footbridges over it, allotments, sanitation and
drains, footpaths and roads within the Parish and lighting all
descended on the Council. This cost money and the Council raised
a ‘precept' on the parish rates to cover the expenses of the
Council (one shilling for the hire and heating of the room in
the Boy's School for the meetings, the purchase of an inkwell,
pen and paper for the Clerk, and a deed box for the deposit of
the Minutes and monies).
An official Scavenger, to clear the ponds and maintain the
Commons, was appointed at two shillings and sixpence per week,
with tools provided. All this added expenditure meant that the
annual precept rose to £ 15 within a year and has increased,
with extra responsibility, to stand at £91,000 in 1994!
In 1895, the National Society for Epilepsy's home was officially
opened by the Duke of Devonshire, to care for epileptic patients
from all over Britain. The site, at Skipping's Farm, had been
bought by Mr Passmore Edwards and he donated a further £4,000 to
establish a house for male patients and another for women. To
this day the Parish has kept close and caring contact with the
Centre.
The first big problem arose in 1895, when the Parish Council had
to consider the separation of Gerrards Cross Parish from the old
Chalfont St Peter one whose southward boundary stretched as far
as Fulmer, Upton and Langley. This necessitated the formation of
a committee to redraw the boundary between the two villages
(running up North Park through Latchmoor) and to re assess those
who were claiming 'outdoor relief' on St Peter's rates. Another
committee was formed in 1896 to look into a proposed railway
line through Gerrards Cross, and another was formed in 1899 to
represent the village in the dispute against the District
Council's proposals to site the Amersham Sewage Farm hard
against the Parish Boundary on the North, where it was feared
that leakage might polute the Misbourne and local wells.
Thus was born the idea of forming various permanent committees
to deal with specific aspects of local administration, all
answerable to the main Council. Today, there are committees
dealing with amenities and planning, open spaces, policy and
finance. The Parish Council appointed ‘eight competent men’ to
serve as Parish Constables in 1896 to keep the peace and
administer the law within the parish as in Medieval times, but
now no more than archaic title. In 1906, the Council actually
provided a pair of handcuffs for the policeman; while in 1910
the Council put in an official request to the police for a plain
clothes man to station himself at the bottom of Joiners Lane to
‘detect and punish those who recklessly ride down this narrow
road to the common danger’!
Part of the main allotment area of the village, lying behind
Gold Hill Lane (now Market Place), was requisitioned in 1899 as
an extension of the cemetery so other allotment sites were
continuously being sought over the years, including at Gravel
Hill and "Love's Delight" between Mill Meadow and Church Lane.
Part of the Council's work was to sort out disputes between
holders, to stop rubbish being dumped on the areas and to see
that each allotment was well cultivated nothing has changed!
1900 - Reports reached the village in 1900 of an epidemic of
smallpox in London which galvanised the Council to institute
medical and sanitary precautions. It soon prompted enquiries
into the possibility of having piped water supplied to the
village. A local company was planning to supply Gerrards Cross
but not St Peter, so the Parish Council entered into
negotiations with the Rickmansworth & Uxbridge Valley Water
Company. in 1903 the first pipes were laid and two fire hydrants
were placed in the centre of the village. Thus did the Council
envisage an increase in population within the Parish, helped by
the opening of Gerrards Cross railway station in 1906.
The constant blockage of the Misbourne by obstructions' between
the Water Hall and the village, and the poor state of the
footbridges were recurring problems for the Council, especially
when a child was drowned in 1904, due to the rush of water under
a bridge near Mr Brown’s (house) Repairs were allowed; provided
they did not exceed £3.
Vehicular traffic through the village led to plans to build a
bridge over the river near the Greyhound Inn and, as speeding
was already a problem, speed restriction signs of 10 mph were
erected at all entrances to the village in
1908. This was followed by requests to the County Council to
have all 10 ft width roads in the village tarred, to combat dust
and mud. In the same year the Council approached the Uxbridge
Gas Company to tender for the
erection of eight gas lamps in the village at the cost of £20 to
be added to the rates. Mr Harris was employed at two shillings
and sixpence a week as lamplighter with the use of a ladder.
1911 - Chalfont St Peter joined with Gerrards Cross to form a
volunteer Fire Brigade with its own hut and engine and, over the
years, it badgered the two District Councils concerned to
provide more hydrants. In 1913, Amersham District Council
granted delegated powers to the Parish Council to manage all its
commons, which was speedily followed by the publication of Bye
laws prohibiting the 'drawing of any carriage, cart, caravan,
truck, bicycle ... perambulator or chaise' on the Commons. These
also prohibited 'defacing or cutting down of trees, brushwood,
furze or plants or for that matter firing any gun or throwing
any missile (except as part of a designated sport, approved by
the Council)'.
Within the next few years, as a result of a large influx of
people to this desirable area in the country yet near London,
provision was made for schools and churches. All Saints' Church
in Oval Way was opened by the Bishop of Buckingham and the Roman
Catholic Church was dedicated by the Bishop of Northampton in
1915 but, due to the difficulties of war, both churches remained
uncompleted for the next forty years or so. The ending of the
First Great War in 1918 heralded a service of thanksgiving and
public celebrations in the village which was followed in 1920
with the erection of a hall at the bottom of Gold Hill Lane (the
Broadway), donated by Mr Fass, owner of the Grange, as a
memorial to all those of the Parish who had been killed in
action.
As a result of a report into the homeless of the village, it was
decided to ask the District Council for permission to build 70
workmen's houses for renting on a new site off Gold Hill, using
a combination of Government grant and District rates. In 1924
the first 24 residents, including the Alford's, the Harriss's
and the Clarke's, moved into their new houses.
1923 - A major new development in 1923 was the building of a row
of shops up Gold Hill Lane (renamed the Market Place) and the
erection of a picture palace on the site of the old roller
skating rink, off Gold Hill, where the owner's wife, Mrs Hill,
sold oranges and sweets at a penny a bag in the interval.
The first woman, Lady Mary Clanson, was elected to the Parish
Council in 1925 and election by 'ballot only' was introduced in
the same year. Four years later, the Grange was sold to an order
of teaching nuns and became a convent and a school for girls.
In 1931, the parish boundaries between Chalfont St Peter,
Chalfont St Giles and Gerrards Cross were all redrawn as a
result of the new Local Government Act. The following year, the
Parish Council finally agreed to lease Mr Mead's field alongside
the River Misbourne, as a playing field and children's
playground. After further negotiations it was decided to dig an
outdoor swimming pool on the site of a pit, also belonging to Mr
Mead. This was opened in 1933 and was immediately popular; but
considerable problems over maintenance, vandalism and cost of
extension of amenities led to its closure in 1938, a decision
precipitated by the unhygienic state of the water. It was
emptied and cemented over.
During the same year, after many centuries, the pond on Gold
Hill was filled in no longer was it a watering place for nearby
cattle, but it could not be used as the dumping ground for
'night soil', garden refuse or household objects!
1939 An order was issued by the Parish Council in 1939 for the
demolition of the Barrack Yard cottages, which were in a bad
state of repair and hygiene. Nevertheless, they had been a
feature of the village since the 17th Century and were named, it
is said, because Judge Jeffreys' bodyguard was stationed there
while their master was temporarily living in the Grange. The
plan was to replace the cobbled square with a memorial garden,
but the area remained empty until it was swallowed up as part of
the new shopping precinct with flats above, which was opened in
1968, after some more cottages along the High Street were,
likewise, demolished.
The imminent war led to the formation of an Air Raid Precaution
Committee in 1938, with wardens for each area of the village
being responsible for the issue of gas masks and protective
clothing, and the installation of a air raid siren near the fire
station. The dropping of a German 1940 land mine on the village
in 1940 and over flying by German bombers on their way to London
and, later, V I rockets (the Doodle Bugs) and the arrival of
1,210 evacuees from London in 1939, kept the village busy
throughout the war.
The constant traffic of tanks, armoured vehicles and trucks of
the gathering D Day troops through the narrow. twisting High
Street, and the never ending exhortations for knitted garments
'for our lads' and, sadly, the news of local casualties,
involved the whole village. In 1942 the Parish Council acquired
part of 'Bloom's Wood' in Denham Lane as a Garden of Rest with
space for 3,000 graves. Various donations of trees and shrubs
have turned it into a restful and beautiful area, despite the
constant ravages of visiting wild rabbits!
The only remaining building of Swan's Farm, the Tithe Barn, was
acquired by the Parish Council and renovated to become the
village Youth Club. It was officially opened by Lady Hamilton in
1946, since when it has become the focal point for countless
Chalfont St Peter youngsters and an integral part of parish
life.
1948 - The huge post War population growth necessitated the
building of new schools and the expansion of existing ones. In
1948, 'Old Job's' was expanded into the new Secondary Modern
School and has recently gained the coveted prize of excellence
as a Community College.
The existing school at St Joseph's had catered admirably for
Catholic children since the 1930s but, by the end of the 1940s,
needed upgrading and expanding which was achieved by 1958; only
to face a new 'baby bulge' almost immediately! Fresh building
work was undertaken and in 1972 the single school divided into
First and Middle Schools, all sited at the end of Priory Road.
As the village expanded up the hill off Denham and Rickmansworth
Lanes, a new Primary School at Gravel Hill was opened in 1960.
This remained until the 1990s when existing pupils transferred
to Robertswood School (formerly Cheena School) in Denham Lane.
The village had sore need of a Community Centre to house the
numerous clubs and activities springing up in the 1960s what
better place to build it but on Mill Meadow? It was officially
opened in 1962 and a wing was added and dedicated in 1992 as the
Parish Council Room, now used for Parish Council Committee
meetings and as the Parish Clerk's office.
1968 - The single most dramatic change to the village happened
in 1968 with the opening of the bypass, linking the A40 at
Tatling End with Chalfont St Giles, leaving St Peter in
comparative peace. It had involved the demolition of many
Medieval cottages stretching from the High Street out towards
Gravel Hill and the erection of a round about, thus changing the
character of the village forever.
The elderly of the village were not forgotten as, in 1971, the
Ellwood House site was developed as bungalows and flats and
taken over by the Chiltern Hundreds Housing Association. Ten
years later, Hibbert Lodge, named after 19th Century local
benefactors, was opened as sheltered accommodation on a site
tucked away on Gold Hill Common.
By the 1970s, the local population had settled at the mid 1
2,000's and by 1976, the new Leisure Centre in Nicol Road was
completed, with a swimming pool, sports hall, squash courts,
fully equipped gymnasium and an upstairs bar and recreation
room. Within three years, it had won the prestigious Sports
Council, Southern Regions Cup for small centres and now caters
for all age groups, from the 'over fifties' to children from the
local schools.
1992 - Newland Park on the northern fringe of the Parish had
been converted from a Georgian private residence into a College
of Further Education (or 'Teacher Training' as it was known in
the 1940s) which, in turn, became part of High Wycombe College
and, in 1992, was elevated to the status of a university college
as part of Brunel University, specialising in degree courses in
Health, Business Studies and Applied Social Studies.
It is now a large, well equipped campus and welcomes local
sports and social activities. It houses over 500 students and
caters for about 2,000 non resident students with their own
modern social building. Down the road is the Shire Horse Centre
which opened in 1988 and has become a verv popular tourist
attraction. Behind the campus is the important Chiltern Open Air
Museum, housing prehistoric, Medieval and modern, but obsolete,
buildings. All have been carefully transported and lovingly
restored by volunteer 'Friends'. It attracts thousands of
visitors every year as well as caterinp for local school
children as part of their historic studies.
1995 It has been said that Chalfont St Peter offers the widest
range of facilities and interests in the district. The
celebration of the Centenary of the Parish Council in June 1994
involved the whole 1992 village and was much enjoyed. It was
followed in May 1995 by the marking of the 50th Anniversary of
the ending of World War II in Europe with a Thanksgiving Service
on Gold Hill Common, concluding with a huge bonfire and
fireworks which was attended by all age groups of the village
and visitors.
During the past century, some of the quaint and beautiful
aspects of the village have disappeared, with increasing
urbanisation, but enough remains to make Chalfont St Peter a
pleasant village to live in. That is certainly the aim of the
present Parish Council as it was a hundred years ago when those
nine members embarked on a new experiment in local government.
|
|
|
