Neil Rees's History of Chartridge Village 2025

Chartridge is an ancient village which lies about two miles north of Chesham.

This is the story…

Chartridge

Chartridge village consists of scattered farms and houses strung out along what is

called Chartridge Lane, which links Chesham to The Lee. In the Chiltern way of

speaking, the long tops of hills are called “ridges” and the long valleys between are

called “bottoms.” The name Chartridge is Anglo-Saxon and is believed to derive

from Caerda’s or Caedda’s Ridge. Chartridge is one of many ridge settlements in the

Chilterns, like Bledlow Ridge, Hundridge and Ashridge. In the Victorian era, it was

often spelt Charteridge, but these days it is usually spelt Chartridge. In 1899

Chartridge was created into a separate civil parish from Chesham, an area which

also included the hamlets of Ashridge, Bellingdon, Hundridge and Pednor.

Chartridge Baptist Chapel

Chartridge lay in the ecclesiastical parish of Chesham, but for most of Chartridge’s

history, the only church has been the Baptist church. The original Baptist chapel

opened in 1844, as a branch of Chesham General (now called Broadway) Baptist

church in Chesham. The current Chartridge Chapel dates from 1885. The

congregation known as Chartridge Mission Church meets each Sunday at 6 pm.

Chartridge Lodge

In 1899, the Franklin family came to Chartridge from London and lived at the top end of the village at a cottage and poultry farm. Over the next 14 years, the Franklins extended the house to create Chartridge Lodge, which hosted many village events. They built many homes in the village. The Franklin family were important in starting many of the village groups. Chartridge Lodge, now Chartridge Conference Centre, was granted Grade II listed building status in 1983.

Reading Room

Arthur Franklin converted a disused blacksmith’s shop on the corner of Codgells Lane into a meeting room. It was officially opened on August 10, 1903, and had “Reading Room” painted at the top of the front door. It functions as the village hall and hosts many events. In 1919, Caroline Franklin founded Chartridge Women’s Institute (WI), which met there.

St Christopher's Church

By 1930, the Anglican parish of Chesham started holding Anglican services at

Chartridge Reading Room which it called Chartridge Mission Church. It had a

Sunday School and from time to time evening services. From 1960 it was called St

Christopher’s church, to avoid confusion with Chartridge Baptist Mission Church. It

had a weekly service at 9:30 am, followed by Sunday School. St Christopher’s had

their own chairs, hassocks, prayer books, and Bibles that they would take out and

pack away for each service. It continued until 1975.

Pubs

There used to be two pubs in Chartridge which were on opposite sides of the road

near to each other, with a nearby pond where horses and drovers’ animals could

drink. The older of the two was the Portobello Arms. In 1971 the building was

converted to a private house, and it is still called the Portobello Arms. The Bell was

first licensed in 1862 as an alehouse. Beer and cider, from plentiful local apples,

were brewed on site. The Bell functioned as a pub until recently.

Annual fete and show

From 1893, Chartridge Athletic Sports Show was held one day in early August.

Sports events included one mile, half a mile, quarter mile running races, a walking

race, a slow bicycle race, donkey racing, donkey driving and a Chartridge versus

Ashridge and Bellingdon inter-village tug-of-war. From 1899, a Horticultural Show

was added, which included classes for vegetables, butter, honey, poultry, and eggs

from locals’ gardens and allotments. In its early years, it was held at Grange Farm

and later at Chartridge Lodge. It was open to anyone who lived in the civil parish of

Chartridge and was held on August Bank Holiday. Chartridge Horticultural Society

now run two shows a year, one in spring and one in autumn, held at the Reading

Rooms.

Cricket and Football

Cricket has long been played at Chartridge with games recorded since at least 1897.

In 1909, Miss Helen Franklin started the Chartridge Ladies’ Cricket Team which

played at Chartridge Lodge. In 1939 Chartridge Ladies lost to a team of Women

Territorials 48 to 13. Chartridge Football club started in the 1890s, with its

headquarters at the Portobello Arms. Sport is played on the playing field down

Cogdells Lane donated by the Franklin family. It was opened on July 9, 1928, by Mrs

Franklin, and is known as Franklin Fields.

Golf

Chartridge Park Golf course and clubhouse is on the corner of Chartridge Lane and

Westdean Lane. It was started by golf professional Peter Gibbens and his father-

in-law Bill Wells in 1989 as a 9-hole course and was extended to 18 holes in which

opened on June 23, 1991. It covers 59 acres.

Youth Hostel

A youth hostel opened in November 1934, at 331, Chartridge Lane, in a bungalow

 called Colwyn. Guests could sleep in double-decker bunkbeds, and use

 washbasins, and self-catering cooking facilities. It closed at the end of 1945, and

 became a residential bungalow, still called Colwyn, which was demolished in 2019.

Wartime

During the war, Chartridge hosted evacuees from London; Land Girls were working

 in the fields, and the youth hostel hosted Jewish refugees. On December 1, 1943, an

accident happened when a Lockheed Lightning P-38 aircraft crashed into a field in

Chartridge. The American pilot William Turner was killed in the incident, aged just

24.

Caravan Park

The caravan park down Old Sax Lane began in 1945. In 1965, the first of two fully

equipped mobile homes were erected and connected to water. Today it is a

community run by the residents as Chartridge Park Ltd with shared communal

areas.

Chartridge School

In the Victorian era, children from Chartridge would walk over the fields to

Ashridge for school. The new Chartridge School was built in 1968 and opened in 

January 1969, as Chartridge Combined School opened on former farmland, which

takes children from ages 5 to 11.

Written by Neil Rees and published in the Bucks Free Press, Friday, 26th September 2025, page 38.