Social housing arrived in Chesham with the building of 12 workmen’s cottages in Brockhurst Road in 1914. By 1924, planning permission was granted for 89 more. Six houses had also been built in Severalls Avenue and 25 near Cannon Mill in Waterside.

However, more were urgently needed and when 42 acres of land on the hill known as Pond Park became available in 1927, Chesham Urban District Council snapped them up and made immediate plans for another 150 dwellings.

There were 250 new homes built by the Council between 1918 and 1928 but it was not until 1932 that the Council began to address the problem of inadequate housing in the old town with a slum clearance order for Townfield.

At the same time, a further 54 houses were built on Pond Park. By 1935, 11 different areas in the old town had been designated by the Council as requiring clearance, and a further 100 council houses were built on Pond Park.

By 1943, the Council had earmarked the site of Deansway and Benham Close for housing along with what became the Missenden Road Housing Estate. These houses were erected partially with labour provided by prisoners of war. They also erected 35 prefabricated homes (known as prefabs) on redundant allotments in Chessmount Rise and 1946-47 saw the acquisition of land at the Cow Meadows in Fullers Hill. By the 1950s, council houses were being built off Lowndes Avenue in what became Beechcroft Road.

Further council houses were built in two different areas at the Waterside end of the town. There was the Cresswell Road estate just off Bois Moor Road and the Pheasant Rise estate which was between Chessmount Rise and Trapps Lane, the latter being built around 1970.

All this social housing remained under the control of firstly, Chesham Urban District Council and then latterly Chiltern District Council until the housing was privatised and taken over by a housing association. This has changed over the years, but today is Paradigm Housing.

© Eleanor Phillips, November 2022