Amenities
The pedestrianised High Street with its historic Market Square clock tower features numerous specialist individual shops alongside multiple retailers and there is a flourishing and diverse market open on a Wednesday and Saturday.  

The local schools enjoy a good reputation and Chesham is within an area with Grammar school education.   A wide range of vocational and academic opportunities are available at Chesham Park College for adults and school leavers alike.     

The Elgiva Theatre, picturesque Lowndes Park, Meades Water Gardens, the open-air heated swimming pool at The Moor, Chesham Museum and the Library and Study Centre are just a few of the public amenities on offer in the town.      

The town is surrounded by the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and is a wonderful base from which to explore the Chilterns countryside.  It is the starting point for many local walks including the tranquil Chess Valley Walk.

Activities
Virtually all year round there is something happening in Chesham from the open air Carnival, the annual Mayoral Awards and a wide variety of musical, cultural and sporting activities to Chesham’s Victorian evening and Christmas events.

Chesham is part of the ‘Britain in Bloom’ programme with local participants aged from 4 to 86.  This has been a real success story with prizes including Best Environmental Project for work on the River Chess and Best School Involvement for Waterside and Brushwood schools.

Chesham has also launched its own 2012 Group in advance of the Olympics with plans to run a number of different sporting and cultural events right up to the summer of 2012 including opportunities to try out a range of activities.

Transport
The Metropolitan Line runs trains to Baker Street and there are also services to Marylebone and Euston from neighbouring towns. Access to the M1, M4 and M40 and the motorway network are available via Junction 18 of the M25 at Chorleywood or via the A41 at Berkhamsted joining the M25 at Junction 20.

History
Chesham is a market town in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire.   It is situated in the Chess Valley and surrounded by farmland, as well as being bordered on one side by Amersham and Chesham Bois. The earliest records of Chesham as a settlement are from the second half of the tenth century although there is archaeological evidence of people in the area from around 8000 BC.

The town is known for its four Bs:- Baptists (the town experienced considerable unrest being a seat of religious nonconformity and during the English Civil War the townspeople sided with the Parliamentarians), beer, boots and brushes.  Chesham's prosperity grew significantly during the 18th and 19th centuries with the development of manufacturing industry.

In the face of fierce competition from both home and abroad all these traditional industries rapidly declined. The ready availability of skilled labour encouraged new industries to the town both before and after the end of the Second World War. Today employment in the town is provided by mainly small business engaged in light industry, technology and professional services.

From the early part of the 20th century onwards there has been a considerable expansion of the town with new housing developments and civic infrastructure. Increasingly Chesham has also become a commuter town with improved connection to London via the Underground and road networks. The town centre has been progressively redeveloped since the 1960’s and the population of the town has increased to slightly over 20,000 but further growth has been restricted through the application of Green belt policies.

Source: Chesham. (2009, August 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 05:56, August 9, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chesham&oldid=306927245

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