Prehistoric and Roman period Archaeological evidence indicates human activity from prehistoric times in the area that became Cheshunt, with excavations uncovering flint tools and pottery. During the
Roman era, the Ermine Street was built through the area, being a major road linking
Londinium (London) to
Eboracum (York). By the time of the
Norman Conquest of 1066, this section of Ermine Street had been replaced by a newer road to the east, running closer to the River Lea. Although the town's name suggests there was a Roman camp here, no trace of a permanent Roman settlement has been found in the area. That said, there have been a number of finds from the Roman era, including coins and pottery finds. The Roman Urn public house on Crossbrook Street commemorates this heritage. An episode of
Time Team in 2002 followed an archaeological dig which uncovered further Roman-era artefacts in Cheshunt.
Medieval period By the end of the
Anglo-Saxon era, Cheshunt was a
manor. Immediately before the Norman Conquest of 1066, it was owned by someone called Edeva the Fair. The
Domesday Book of 1086 records the manor as
Cestrehunt in the
Hertford Hundred of Hertfordshire. By then, it was owned by
Alan Rufus, a
Breton nobleman who had been granted extensive estates across England in the years following the
Battle of Hastings. The Domesday Book recorded a total of 78 households in the manor, which also had a mill and extensive woodland. By the late 12th century, Cheshunt also had a
Benedictine convent known as
Cheshunt Nunnery, which survived until the
dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s. , originally built by William Cecil in the 1560s The manor of Cheshunt gradually fragmented into smaller manors or estates. In the south of the parish,
Theobalds had become a separate manor by 1441.
Elizabeth I visited Theobalds frequently. The Cecil family gave Theobalds Palace to
James I in 1607 in exchange for
Hatfield House. James found Theobalds a good location for sport and spent significant time there. He died at Theobalds in 1625. The site of the palace was eventually donated to the local council in 1919 to become a public park called
Cedars Park. The
Temple Bar gateway, which had been completed in 1672 to mark the western entrance of the
City of London, was dismantled in 1878. It was subsequently re-erected in Theobalds Park in the 1880s. It was dismantled again and returned to London in 2004, where it was re-erected on a new site in
Paternoster Square, adjacent to
St Paul's Cathedral. By 1474, a manor called Andrews had also been created at Cheshunt.
Cheshunt Great House was built in the 15th century as its manor house, likely on the site of an earlier building as its vaults were said to date from the 13th century. In 1519, the Great House came into the possession of Cardinal
Thomas Wolsey, chief adviser to
Henry VIII. The Great House was destroyed in a fire in 1965.
Cheshunt Park was another estate created from part of the ancient manor of Cheshunt. There is mention of a park belonging to the manor from as early as 1339. By the 16th century, Cheshunt Park had become a separate estate. In 1795, a mansion called Brantyngeshaye was built at Cheshunt Park for its owner, Oliver Cromwell, who was great-grandson of the
Oliver Cromwell who had ruled England in the 1650s following the English Civil War. The house subsequently also became known as Cheshunt Park after the park in which it stood. The house was demolished in 1970.
Growth of the modern town In the early 19th century, the settlement of Cheshunt was still described as a village. The settlement had two main centres; the ancient core of the village along the street called Churchgate near the parish church, and a roadside settlement which had grown up along High Street and Turners Hill about to the east, to take advantage of passing trade along that main road. The Cheshunt Railway, an experimental overhead
monorail, was opened in 1825. It was designed by engineer
Henry Robinson Palmer, and was primarily built to carry materials from the brickworks of a Mr Gibbs near Gews Corner to a wharf on the River Lea. It also carried passengers, making it the world's first passenger monorail. The design featured an overhead track with horse-drawn carriages suspended below, with hinged rail sections to accommodate road crossings. No trace of the monorail survives. The
Northern and Eastern Railway opened its line from London as far as
Broxbourne in 1840. The line passed through the parish of Cheshunt, but the only station in the parish when the line first opened was
Waltham station at Waltham Cross.
Cheshunt railway station subsequently opened in 1846. The railways enhanced connectivity with London. Commuter housing grew significantly, particularly from the 1930s onwards.
Glasshouse industry Cheshunt became a major centre of commercial
glasshouses for
market gardening, growing vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers, and flowers such as roses. Growers were able to take advantage of the area's good water supply and its proximity to London. The first glasshouses in the area were built in 1806. The nursery firm Paul and Son, established in 1806, gained prominence for breeding notable varieties of rose, including the 'Cheshunt Hybrid' introduced in the 1870s. In 1931,
British Pathé featured Cheshunt's female horticultural workers in an "Eve's Film Review" segment titled
Glass-House Girls. The footage shows women harvesting cucumbers in the town's commercial greenhouses, and sorting the produce into wicker baskets before loading them onto lorries for distribution. By 1967, the Cheshunt area had a quarter of the country's glasshouses. The industry went into sharp decline after that, and most of the glasshouses were redundant by the end of the 1970s, with many subsequently being redeveloped for housing.
War commemoration In 1923, a war memorial was erected to honour local men who died in the
First World War. It was designed by architect J. W. Hanchett, and stands in the central garden of a courtyard of almshouses at the corner of Turners Hill and Victoria Close. It was later rededicated to also include those who died in the
Second World War and post-1945 conflicts. During the Second World War, on 12 August 1944, a
Consolidated B-24 Liberator bomber of the
United States Army Air Forces, en route to France and loaded with explosives, crashed on land at Albury Farm, killing all ten crew members aboard. Witnesses reported that the stricken plane initially appeared to have been heading for the centre of Cheshunt, but was steered by its pilot, Lieutenant John D. Ellis, to avoid landing on the town itself, avoiding civilian casualties. The incident is commemorated in the naming of a modern road as Lieutenant Ellis Way. A memorial plaque was also unveiled in 2010 near the crash site at the entrance to
St Mary's School, honouring the American crew's sacrifice.
Economic and urban development Following the
Second World War, a number of
council estates were developed in Cheshunt, with some being built on land bought by London borough councils in order to cater for
London overspill. In 1973,
Tesco established its headquarters at Delamere Road in Cheshunt. The site remained Tesco's headquarters until 2016, when the company moved its headquarters to
Welwyn Garden City. The former Tesco headquarters was subsequently demolished to make way for the new "Cheshunt Lakeside" development of 1,700 homes alongside a new school and shops. Cheshunt today functions as a commuter settlement, supported by its transport connections, including proximity to the M25 motorway and rail links. In a survey in 2019 by the
This Is Money website, Cheshunt was ranked as the best commuter town for people working in London based on factors including property prices, travel time, and local amenities. == Geography ==