Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire
Historical Description
Waltham Cross, an ecclesiastical parish, with a large village, in the civil parish of Cheshunt, Herts, on the G.E.R., on which it has two stations-viz., Waltham Cross and Theobald's Grove, the former on the main line about 1½ mile S of Cheshunt, the latter on the Cheshunt and Edmonton branch about 1 mile to the SW. It has a head post office. It was made a district chapelry in 1855, which became a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1856. Population, 4387. It takes its suffix-name from an Eleanor cross, erected by Edward I. in memory of his consort Eleanor. It was erected on the spot where her body rested on its way to Westminster, at the junction of the great London Road with that which turns off towards Waltham Abbey, near where the Four Swans Inn, an ancient hostelry, some small portions of which may date from Edward's time, is now standing. At this meeting of the roads the body was set down, from thence it was conducted by the abbot and monks in procession, and temporarily deposited before the high altar in the Abbey church of the Holy Cross. The cross is the finest remaining of the Queen Eleanor crosses, of which there were originally twelve, but from an antiquarian point of view it suffered from the "restorations" effected in 1721, 1757, and 1833. It was further restored in 1888-92, and the work was then well done. Theobald's Park is a fine mansion standing on an eminence in a park of about 200 acres, one of the entrances of which is through the old Temple Bar of London, which was removed from Fleet Street in 1878, and re-erected here some ten years later. The living is a vicarage in the diocese of St Albans; net value, £52 with residence, in the gift of the Vicar of Cheshunt. The church, erected in 1832, is a structure of brick in the Perpendicular style. There are Congregational and Roman Catholic chapels, and four almshouses founded in 1625 for four poor widows.
Administration
The following is a list of the administrative units in which this place was either wholly or partly included.
Ancient County | Hertfordshire | |
Civil parish | Chessunt St Mary | |
Hundred | Hertford | |
Poor Law union | Edmonton |
Any dates in this table should be used as a guide only.
Directories & Gazetteers
We have transcribed the entry for Waltham Cross from the following:
- Samuel Lewis' A Topographical Dictionary of England, by Samuel Lewis, seventh edition, published 1858. (Waltham-Cross)
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Hertfordshire is online.
Maps
Online maps of Waltham Cross are available from a number of sites:
- Bing (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- Google Streetview.
- National Library of Scotland. (Old maps)
- OpenStreetMap.
- old-maps.co.uk (Old Ordnance Survey maps to buy).
- Streetmap.co.uk (Current Ordnance Survey maps).
- A Vision of Britain through Time. (Old maps)
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Hertfordshire newspapers online:
- Hertford Mercury and Reformer
- Herts Guardian, Agricultural Journal, and General Advertiser
- Watford Observer
Visitations Heraldic
The Visitations of Hertfordshire, 1572 and 1634. Edited by Walter C. Metcalfe, F.S.A. is available on the Heraldry page.