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Cheshunt at War
Created 21 June, 2008
Cheshunt is in the extreme south-east corner of Hertfordshire and is bounded by Essex to the east and Greater London (formerly Middlesex) to the south. Its shopping centre at the Old Pond is fourteen miles north of London Bridge as the crow flies. It now forms part of the Borough of Broxbourne, but until 1974 it was an Urban District in its own right, covering the townships of Cheshunt and Waltham Cross and the smaller settlements of Turnford, Flamstead End, Hammond Street, Goffs Oak and Beaumont.
At the time of the 1939-45 war the only part of the district which was solidly built up was Waltham Cross, particularly east of the High Street, and the area then known as Waltham New Town and since redeveloped as Holbrook. Most of the rest of the district was sporadically developed along the old lanes and streets, with much of the back-land occupied by nurseries. Large tracts of open farmland and woodland covered the northern and western parts and most of the southern margin (the Theobalds Estate) west of Waltham Cross. The extreme eastern fringe between the railway and the River Lea was open marsh and water meadows with a few gravel pits.
At the 1931 census the population of the Urban District was 14,656; the Registrar General's estimate for mid-june 1939 was 17,850, and for 1945 18,700.
The chief local source of employment was horticulture, Cheshunt then being at the centre of the world's largest concentration of glasshouses, but proximity to London afforded the opportunity of community by train to Jobs in the City and the industries of the lower Lea Valley.
Cheshunt was in many ways typical among outer sub-urban settlements around London, being served by a railway and a trunk road (A.10) radiating from the capital. It was, however far enough from the centre to escape the heavy aerial attacks suffered by the City and the East End. Cheshunt also suffered much less than districts a similar distance to the south and east of London, which lay under the flight paths of enemy bombers and V-weapons. Nevertheless, given its geographical position, Cheshunt had its share of bombs and human suffering and tragedy.