Waltham
Cross was a hamlet of Chestnut
and contained about four hundred houses. It takes its name from the
ancient cross standing at an angle formed by the roads to Ware and Waltham
Abbey, and which was erected by Edward I in memory of his beloved
queen, Eleanor (the king built a cross everywhere the bier stopped on
its progress from Herdeby in Lincolnshire, where the queen had died,
to Westminster; Charing Cross is another example).
By
the Regency period the cross was in a highly dilapidated state. The
Society of Antiquaries managed some repairs during the eighteenth century,
but plans to remove it to a safer location came to nothing as the cross
was in such a poor state. The only other structure of interest in Waltham
Cross was an ancient spital (hospital) for poor, lame impotent people.
In the Regency period it was occupied by poor widows.
