Northwest of Central London, nestled in the Chess Valley of Buckinghamshire, sits the market town and civil parish of Chesham. Flanked by vast swathes of farmland, Chesham has undergone a series of developments from the early 20th century onward, and is now a major commuter satellite town of London, with the Metropolitan branch of the London Underground servicing Chesham since 1889! Chesham is considered substantially more affordable than neighbouring Amersham, with house prices ranging upwards from £500,000!

Chesham’s written record pre-dates the 1086 Domesday Book survey ordered by William the Conquerer. The first record of Chesham dates from 970 AD from Lady Elgiva, wife of King Edwy, who gave her estate at Chesham (then known as Caesteleshamm) to the Abingdon Abbey. The name Chesham evolved from this, which is also where the River Chess got its name from! Although records indicate clear Saxon occupation, there has been a wealth of archaeological evidence to suggest prehistoric human settlement; with a wide array of flint tools dating from the Late Mesolithic period (around 8000 BC!) found in Chesham.

In slightly more recent history, it is thought that a once resident of Chesham, Roger Crab, was the real-life inspiration behind Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter character from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. After the English Civil War, Crab located to Chesham at Francis Yard to work as a hat haberdasher in 1651. It is largely thought that the combination of experiencing warfare and the huge levels of mercury used to cure the hats in the period caused Crab’s esoteric and radical behaviour. He became a passionate vegan, lived as a hermit in both Chesham and Uxbridge, and was outspoken against all major religious organisations which often landed him in prison.

Nowadays Chesham benefits from a combination of pastoral landscapes of the Chess Valley, and its direct commutability to London via the Metropolitan underground line. This means that house prices - whilst cheaper than Amersham - are often still high. However, since 2018, there has been a growing need for development in the local area, highlighted by the Chesham Masterplan, which aims to provide a variety of new dwellings and public spaces to the local area, to accomodate Chesham’s growing population. Therefore, there is plenty of potential for development across a range of sectors in Chesham, from public services to new dwellings!