North of Gerrards Cross, nestled amongst the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, sits the village and civil parish of Chalfont St Peter. Associated with the cluster of villages known as the Chalfonts (including Chalfont St Giles and Little Chalfont) Chalfont St Peter is the largest of them all, with nearly 13,000 residents. Transforming into a town-scape following rapid modernisation in the twentieth century, Chalfont St Peter’s population and suburban fabric has boomed of recent years following the rail-link between Gerrards Cross, London, and Birmingham. Owing to this Chalfont St Peter’s housing fabric is populated by grand Edwardian detached housing priced at over £3 million, high-street flats, and semi-detached 1960s housing!

In medieval records, there was no distinction made between any of the three Chalfont villages. The first recorded mention of the Chalfonts comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles in AD 949 where it is written as ‘ceadeles funtan’ thought to mean ‘Calf’s Spring’. This lack of separation continues even in the 1086 Domesday Book survey for William the Conquerer. It wasn’t until 1237 that the three villages were formally separated, with Chalfont St Peter being referred to as ‘Chalfund Sancti Petri’. Chalfont St Peter, for many centuries, was a small locale with a scattering of grand country houses dotted in amongst the green landscapes - until the post-Victorian advent of modernisation.

In 1906, when the Gerrards Cross rail station was formally opened, huge development efforts were ushered into Chalfont St Peter’s landscape. The railway station, serviced by initially by Great Central and Great Western Railways, efficiently connected Gerrards Cross and Chalfont St Peter to London and Birmingham, massively opening up the Chalfonts to the rest of the UK. Large-scale housing developments took hold in the 1920s, and later in the 1960s also which focused on producing new cul-de-sac style housing clusters. This also ushered in a new social landscape of the town with the population doubling in just 30 years! The village core has since been replaced with this modernised architecture, and little of the original historic centre is left.

Although a historic village, Chalfont St Peter is not entirely designated by conservation areas. There are four conservation areas: Goldhill Common, North Park, Kingsway and the Firs Estate - which are all spread across different areas of the town. Despite this, most housing development in recent decades has been confined to small infill developments and has not spread to the surrounding green belt land. Chalfont St Peter’s housing market is dominated by large properties with little scope for smaller homes designed for younger families or downsizing purposes. In Chalfont St Peter’s Neighbourhood Plan for up to 2028, the parish council has recognised the need for a diverse housing stock that caters to a wide-range of needs!