Part of the dispersed community of various villages in the wider Amersham locale known as ‘The Chalfonts’, Chalfont Saint Giles is a village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, located south-east of Amersham. On the edge of the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Chalfont Saint Giles is known for its picturesque pastoral landscapes, the birth of cockney-rhyming slang, and the home to British literary history. It has recently been cited as a place of potential development by the Chilterns and South Bucks development plan, with potential for growth in the area!

Chalfont Saint Giles appears in the 1086 Domesday Book survey for William the Conquerer as Chelfunte, and even in 1086 is listed as a separate manor from the nearby Chalfont Saint Peter. The name ‘chalfont’ is suggested to have derived from the Old English words for ‘chalk’ and ‘spring’, owing to the chalk-rich land of the area. The Parish Church, the Church of Saint Giles, dates back to the Norman period, and is thought to have been constructed between 1150 and 1180 during the reign of King Henry II, and still stands today!

Its status a quiet pastoral village, was a well-known fact throughout much of the southeast of England. Perhaps this is why, following the outbreak of the Great Plague in 1665 in London, John Milton migrated from the capital to Chalfont Saint Giles, to a cottage built in 1580. It is here where, owing to the fact of his total blindness by 1652, Milton recited the contents of his great canonical work ‘Paradise Lost’ to a scribe. This monumental piece of literary history has influences countless thousands of works around the globe, and it happened in the sleepy village of Chalfont Saint Giles! The house of Milton is now a museum, and is open to the public!

Chalfont Saint Giles is a village, and a village on the outskirts of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and on the Green Belt, and therefore development in the area can often be slow and stagnant. Despite this, however, there has been recent developmental pushes for housing and infrastructure in the area! In the Chilterns and South Bucks Local Plan, a small housing development has been initiated within the Chalfont Saint Giles locale aiming to keep with the local historic charm and character of the area.