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• Use every time you search the web and they give 50% of the fees paid by their advertising sponsors to Chesham Museum. Just type 'Chesham Museum' into the box provided on the easysearch web page and start searching.

Donate On-line

• Chesham Museum is an entirely volunteer-run and independent museum. We rely on your donations to continue to record and share our town's fascinating and diverse history. Go to the Chesham Museum page of the MyCharity website and donate today.

Fund raising

• Help us by becoming a Friend of the Museum

Chesham Town Council Events

• A calendar of events in Chesham

Chesham objects in other collections

• Have you spotted an object associated with Chesham in another museum? If so, we would love to know about it. Chiltern Toys had a factory making wooden and other toys in Waterside, Chesham until the outbreak of WWII. This Chiltern Toys bear is in the collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

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Chesham Timeline

For more information click on a More on... link

c.8000 BC	Mesolithic people establish a camp in the area of Stratford's Yard. More on PastScape...
c.2500 BC	Neolithic farming settlement in the area of Stratford's Yard.
c.1800 BC	Bronze age people settle in the valley. Defensive sites on the hills around. More on PastScape...
c.500 BC	Iron Age Belgic people of the Catuvellauni tribe present in and around Chesham. Defensive sites at Grove Farm, Orchard Leigh and Cholesbury. More on PastScape...
c.AD 150-400	Romano-British villa (farm) at Latimer (more on PastScape...)and occupation in the area of Dawes Close, Chesham. More on PastScape...
mid-5th century	Chesham site abandoned.
7th century	Settlements at Missenden and Cholesbury. Caedwalla takes refuge in the "deserts of Chiltern".
7th-10th century	Chesham settled by the Saxons - they give their names to many places in the area. More on PastScape...
c.970	The Lady Elgiva mentions her estate at "Caesteleshamm" [a water meadow by a heap of stones] in her will and the course of the Isne [now the Chess] is diverted to power Lord's Mill.
1086	Domesday Book records five entries for "Cestreham", including four mills. More on PastScape...
12th century	Building of St Mary's Church.
1257	Royal charter granted by Henry III for a weekly market. More on PastScape...
1532	Thomas Harding burned for heresy at a "dell going to Botley".
1538	Chesham parish records begin.
17th century	Non-conformists hold house meetings in Chesham.
c.1650	Roger Crabbe, the "Mad Hatter" of Chesham, has a shop in the High Street.
1701	Particular Baptists begin holding services in Chesham.
early 18th cent.	Chesham woollen industry declines.
early 18th cent.	William Lowndes builds The Bury. More on PastScape...
1796	Friends Meeting House (Quakers) in Bellingdon Road built. More on PastScape...
1829	Robert Webb sets up Chesham's first brush making factory.
1843	Arthur Liberty, founder of Liberty's stores, born in Chesham.
mid-19th cent.	Chesham lace-making in decline and paper mills close down.
1851	Over 700 straw plait makers working in Chesham and the hamlets.
1864	Christ Church, Waterside opened.
c.1864	Silk mill at Waterside closed.
1869	George Gilbert Scott's restoration of St Mary's Church.
1870	Cottage Hospital opens. More on PastScape...
1871	Typhoid epidemic - 29 people die in the space of a few weeks.
1878	Chesham Town Football Club founded.
1887	Sewerage Works at Milk Hall, Latimer Road completed.
1888	Civil War coin hoard found at Tylers Hill. More on PastScape...
1889	The Metropolitan Railway comes to Chesham. More on PastScape...
1894	Formation of Chesham Urban District Council.
late 19th cent.	Large numbers employed in the wooden ware trade and boot and shoe manufacture moves from home to factory production.
late 19th cent.	Bronze Age pottery bowl found in Stratfords Yard and now on display in Chesham Museum. More on PastScape...
1914	First council houses built by Chesham UDC.
1929	Start of the Pond Park housing development.
1946	Chesham High School founded.
1957	Formation of the Chesham Society.
1960	Electrification of the railway.
1974	Formation of Chesham Town Council.
1990	Completion of town centre pedestrianisation.
1998	Opening of the new Elgiva Theatre and the new Town Hall.
2004	Chesham Museum - The Stables opens behind the Gamekeepers Lodge, Bellingdon Road.
2009	The Stables is closed and Chesham Museum reopens at 15 Market Square.