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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.

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• 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.

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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 Stories

Margaret Johnson

As a seven-year old child, I caught diphtheria and just before Christmas 1940 was taken to the isolation hospital at Stoke Mandeville. While there I picked up scarlet fever and was in hospital just over three months. In that time my parents visited by taxi (shared with another local family) each Sunday. They stood outside and spoke through a closed window. There was only one other child in the room with me and we had stew and rice every day. Needless to say it was a long time before I could face that again.

When I got home I had quite a few childish ailments and ended up having my tonsils and adenoids removed at Chesham Hospital. All I remember is fighting like a tiger when they tried to put the mask over my face. No pre-med in those days. Coming round with a dreadful sore throat, and being given ice-cream, which slipped down very easily and was most soothing.

I was lucky, as many others died.

Margaret Johnson (nee Herrington)

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