| Gerrards Cross | |
|---|---|
| Town and civil parish | |
_-_geograph.org.uk_-_29075.jpg) Gerrards Cross Town Centre | |
  Gerrards Cross Location withinBuckinghamshire | |
| Area | 10.88 km2 (4.20 sq mi) |
| Population | 8,554 (Parish, 2021)[1] 8,115 (Built up area, 2021)[2] |
| OS grid reference | TQ00258860 |
| Unitary authority | |
| Ceremonial county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | Gerrards Cross |
| Postcode district | SL9 |
| Dialling code | 01753 |
| Police | Thames Valley |
| Fire | Buckinghamshire |
| Ambulance | South Central |
| UK Parliament | |
| |
Gerrards Cross is a town andcivil parish inBuckinghamshire,England. It lies immediately south ofChalfont St Peter and a short distance west of theLondon Borough of Hillingdon, from which it is separated by the parish ofDenham. Other neighbouring villages includeFulmer,Hedgerley,Iver Heath andStoke Poges. It is 19 miles (31 km) west-north-west of centralLondon. The town stands on the lower slopes of theChiltern Hills, and theRiver Misbourne flows through the parish, north-east of the town. Bulstrode Park Camp was anIron Age fortified encampment. The town is close to theM25 motorway and theM40 motorway, the latter running beside woodland on the town's southern boundary.
The site of a minorIron Agehillfort, Bulstrode Park Camp, is to the south-west of the town centre. It is ascheduled ancient monument.[3]
The area which is now Gerrards Cross was historically an area of wasteland known as Chalfont Heath, which later became known as Gerrards Cross Common. In the medieval period, there was no village in the area, which straddled the edges of five different parishes. The name Gerrards Cross, sometimes spelled Jarretts Cross, is recorded from at least 1448, and may relate to an early landowner, Gerard of Chalfont, who is recorded as having owned land in the area in the 14th century.[4]
The origin of the 'cross' element of the name is uncertain; a cross is marked on early maps near the Bull Hotel and Latchmoor Pond at the western end of the common, but whether it was a standing cross marking a boundary or meeting place, or a name for a crossroads is unclear. The modern crossroads of the Oxford Road (theA40) and Windsor Road / Packhorse Lane (B416) was not created until 1707, when an old north-south road throughBulstrode Park was diverted, which was many years after the name Gerrards Cross was first recorded.[4]
Until the 19th century, development in the area was limited to a small number of buildings immediately adjoining the common, most of which were in the parish ofChalfont St Peter.[5]
In 1859,St James' Church was built on Oxford Road.[6] It was initially achapel of ease for the parish ofFulmer in which it lay, but in 1861 it became parish church of a newecclesiastical parish called St James, Gerrard's Cross, created from parts of the parishes of Chalfont St Peter, Fulmer,Iver,Langley Marish, andUpton-cum-Chalvey.[7] The creation of the ecclesiastical parish did not change the civil parish boundaries. A new civil parish of Gerrards Cross matching the ecclesiastical parish was subsequently created in 1895.[8]
Gerrards Cross remained a relatively small village at the turn of the 20th century. The parish had a population of 552 at the 1901 census.[9] In 1906,Gerrards Cross railway station opened on theGreat Western and Great Central Joint Railway, a new line jointly built by the two companies to improve their routes from the Midlands to London. The station is to the north-east of Gerrards Cross Common, and the area around the station was developed soon after the station opened; by 1911, the population of the parish had grown to 1,612,[9] and it then grew steadily throughout the 20th century.[10]
The large and distinctiveparish church is dedicated toSt. James. It was built in 1859 as a memorial to Colonel George Alexander Reid who was MP forWindsor, and designed by SirWilliam Tite in yellow brick with aByzantine-style dome, Chinese-lookingturrets and anItalianateCampanile.[6] In 1969 the singerLulu marriedMaurice Gibb of theBee Gees in the church. The actressMargaret Rutherford is buried with her husbandStringer Davis in theSt James Church graveyard.
The town has its own library and its own cinema, theEveryman Gerrards Cross, which originally opened in 1925.
Independent schools include St Mary's (all girls- through to sixth form). Students ofsecondary school age attend either one of the localgrammar schools, such asDr Challoner's Grammar School (Boys with co-educational Sixth Form),Dr Challoner's High School (Girls), TheRoyal Grammar School, High Wycombe (Boys),John Hampden Grammar School (Boys), andBeaconsfield High School (Girls)Chesham Grammar School (Co-ed), and the localUpper School,Chalfonts Community College, which is thecatchment school.
On the south side of the town is theGerrards Cross Memorial Building, on the site of the former vicarage. The building was designed bySir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled in 1922 to commemorate the town's losses during the First World War. It is the only example of a Lutyens war memorial designed with a functional purpose.[11]
There are two tiers of local government covering Gerrards Cross, at civil parish (town) andunitary authority level: Gerrards Cross Town Council andBuckinghamshire Council. The town council meets at theGerrards Cross Memorial Centre on East Common and has its offices at the adjoining South Lodge.[12][13]
From the creation of the civil parish of Gerrards Cross in 1895 until 1974 it was included in theEton Rural District.[14] The parish then became part of the Beaconsfield district in 1974, which was renamedSouth Bucks in 1980.[15] The district was abolished in 2020, when Buckinghamshire Council was created, also taking the functions of the abolished county council.[16]
Since 1974, parish councils have had the right to declare their parishes to be a town.[17] Gerrards Cross Parish Council declared the parish to be a town with effect from 1 January 2016. The council therefore became Gerrards Cross Town Council.[18]
The town has arailway station on theChiltern Main Line which opened on 2 April 1906. This provides services to London, High Wycombe and Oxford with a commuting time of 18 minutes on the fast train toLondon Marylebone. A new arch over the section of deep railwaycutting to allowTesco to build a supermarketcollapsed on 30 June 2005 at 19:30. Nobody was injured but the line was closed for over six weeks. Compensation by Tesco to Chiltern was reported as £8.5m and the retailer compensated by funding a media campaign to reinstate business immediately lost by the closure. Construction of a correctly constructed arch began in January 2009.[19]
The 11.36am from London Paddington to Gerrards Cross was an official or 'parliamentary train' recognised as an outlandish loss-making service to prevent the link to that terminus being closed or re-allocated. This train now terminates at West Ruislip. In 2011, National Rail was lobbied to phase the service out.[20]
The town lies 8.4 miles (13.5 km) north west of London'sHeathrow Airport.
In the 2021 Census, the largest religious affiliations[21] in Gerrards Cross wereChristian (46.2%), those with no religion (22.4%),Sikh (10.5%),Hindu (7.5%),Muslim (6.4%),Jewish (0.8%),Buddhist (0.5%) and Other (0.5%).
It was reported 65.5% of people living in Gerrards Cross were reported as White (65.5%), Asian (25.5%), Mixed (4.0%), Black (4.0%) and Other (1.1%).[22]
Many houses built during development in the 1950s had defective tiles, leading to thehighest court reported judgmentYoung & Marten Ltd v McManus Childs Ltd,[23] holding that a person who contracts to do work and supply materials implicitly warrants that the materials will be fit for purpose, even if the purchaser specifies the materials to be used.
Gerrards Cross was one of the locations for the crime thriller “The Stalkers” (2013) byPaul Finch, a former police officer and journalist and now a full-time writer.
Gerrards Cross also featured in a true story about love and war based on real letters “The Very White of Love” (2018) by S.K. Worrall.
In the story “Carousel” (2013) depicting a spoiled boy from an Indian family the author Rajeev Rana also placed some of the action in Gerrards Cross.
This town also served as the setting for the novella “Amy's Travels” (2024) by Lilly Khripko (born in 2013 in the UK and now living in Gerrards Cross). The book tells the story of a tweenage girl recalling her early childhood.
A History of Chalfont St Peter and Gerrards Cross C G Edmonds 1964 andThe History of Bulstrode by A M Baker 2003 published as one book by Colin Smythe Ltd. 2003
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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