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Chalfont St Giles
Chalfont St Giles photos
Displaying the first of 23 old photos of Chalfont St Giles. View all Chalfont St Giles photos
Chalfont St Giles maps
Historic maps of Chalfont St Giles and the local area, hand-drawn by Ordnance Survey and Samuel Lewis. View all Chalfont St Giles maps
Chalfont St Giles area books
Displaying 1 of 7 books about Chalfont St Giles and the local area. View all books for this area
You can read extracts and browse photos from these books.
Memories of Chalfont St Giles
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memories of Chalfont St Giles.
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Childhood Memories of The Village Pond
My friends and I spent many hours catching Sticklebacks in the pond. A fishing net cost tuppence in those days and was regarded as a lot of money but worth every penny. After the war it was so sad to see the pond gradually disappearing and like so many other childhood memories just fading away.
Whitethorn Morris Dance at Merlin''s Cave Pub
The lovely village green and pond at Chalfont St Giles are next to a splendid pub called Merlin's Cave. This is a very popular summer evening venue for morris dancing and the dancers and musicians can soon draw a crowd of onlookers from both villagers and passing motorists.
For many summers one of the local morris sides which dances here is Whitethorn Morris - often performing as guests of other dance sides including Grand Union Morris and Lord Paget's. I played my piano accordian as leader of the Whitethorn Band and on occasion had nine or ten musicians which at times outnumbered the usual team of eight dancers!
Our morris band included drums, accordians, melodeons, whistles, and even a musical crowbar! The red, white and blue dresses of the Whitethorn Morris dancers made a colourful and energetic spectacle. The band played toe-tapping dance tunes in jig and polka tempos and a good time was enjoyed by all!
These summer evenings were great fun... Read more
Lady Dorothy Paget
I am trying to get some info on Chalfont and wonder if anyone can
help me with some 'memories'. I am 64 now and having recently returned to the UK after many years in the USA, and I am trying to find out about my past.
I am not familiar with the Chalfonts, however my family (one side) were from Chalfont in the 1940s and I am therefore one of the Chalfont/Amersham 'Bartletts' - it seems there were a few. Indeed, although I was born elsewhere in the UK, I was christened in the church at Chalfont St Giles in 1945. My grandfather apparently was head gardener on the estate of Lady Dorothy Paget, the racehorse owner. I did live for a short while there with the family in the lodge on her estate I understand (as a very small child - too young to remember myself though). I have been trying to find out the location of Lady Paget's 'grand' house and to what use it may have... Read more
Village Memories
The village played an important part in my early life. My parents moved here in 1927 and bought a small cottage in Back Lane and named it 'Mon Abri'.
I went to school here, up to 11, and then I was fortunate enough to obtain a Scholarship to Dr Challoners Grammar in Amersham on the Hill to which I cycled every day.
The war was approaching and I was called up in 1942. In the meantime I met my future wife who had been evacuated to Newlands Park. She sadly passed away last year after 68 years of marriage and so you see Chalfont St Giles has so many precious memories for me.
Buckinghamshire memories
Ivy Myers. I wonder how many people from Chalfont remember the "Rose and Crown", a Benskins pub. My father owned it from 1946 until 1950. There was also the “Kings Head” which was on the corner of Joiners Lane. Of course if you look for them now you won't find them, the area is covered by the dual carriage-way and round-a-bout. At this time the village had hardly any cars going through it. My father said that because there were quite a few pubs in the village rivalry for customers was pretty fierce and he had to think of all different ways to get custom. The pub had an old stable block behind it which he turned into a club room. He hired this out for functions and started an “Ancient Order of Buffaloes Lodge”. He did catering for the Gymkhanas and the Bar for the dances held at the hospital. Dad also arranged outings to Goodwood races and local dart team matches. ... Read more
A Bren Gun
Gold Hill common has an upper flat grassy area and then a sloping area, which leads down into the town, which is covered with scrub, not the town of course. This photo is right on the edge of the upper part. In 1963, when I was a boy of eight, the army came and laid on an exhibition, I guess this was a recruitment drive. They carried out a mock battle with half tracks and guns firing blanks and yellow smoke billowing slowly across the common. If you take the main footpath from Layters Green Lane (?) across the common, the swings and stuff will be off to your left, there was/is a hawthorn tree to the right of the path and I lay under that tree with a soldier who was firing a Bren gun. I asked him if I could have any of the spent carteridge shells but he told me that they all had to be accounted for. It was an amazing experience.
Learning to Ride A Bike
We found an old bike that had no chain and no brakes. Every day after school we would get the bike out of the gorse, where we had hidden it, and take it in turns to free wheel down this slope. Then push it back up and someone else would have a go. I would have been seven.
