A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



me last of whom came from the Purbeck quarries and 

 made the shafts, capitals and rings (verg. capit. et 

 anul.). The stone was brought from Caen and the 

 total cost was £95.* The cross is a fine specimen of 

 architecture of the 13th century, although the four 

 basement steps and the two upper stages are modern, 

 having been extensively restored, and, indeed, almost 

 wholly rebuilt in 1833 under the direction of Mr. 

 W. B. Clark, and again, the soft Bath stone having 

 decayed, in 1887-9 b 7 Mr - C - E - Ponting- The 

 lowest stage is original. It i» hexagonal with panels 

 of two ' lights,' having tracery in pointed heads undfr 

 crocketed gables with finials, set against a diapered 



Old House, Chesh 





background which is surmounted by a sculptured 

 cornice very much weathered. In the panels are 

 shields suspended from foliage and carved with the 

 arms of England, Castile and Leon, and Ponthieu. 

 At the angles are small pinnacled buttresses. The 

 second stage has six elaborately gabled and crocketed 

 canop.es with pinnacles between them. They con- 

 tain three statues of the queen, said to be original 

 except the head of that on the west, which has been 

 renewed. 



The third stage, which is also hexagonal, rises from 

 a plinth set in the space inclosed by the heads of the 



* Arch, nii, 1 i + Extract!. 



canopies below it, and masked on the centre of each 

 side by tall heavy crocketed pinnacles with finials not 

 too happily designed. The plinth has 3 foliated 

 cornice at its base, and the panels on the sides of 

 the stage, with the buttresses at the angles, arc of 1 

 design practically repeating that of the canopies of 

 the second stage, but solid. Above this ii 1 low 

 hexagonal plinth supporting a tall pinnacle, crocketed 

 on its six angles, and surmounted by a cross. Practi- 

 cally the whole of the second stage 19 of the restora- 

 tion of 1833, and the upper stages are also very 

 much renovated. The general feature* of the old work 

 have, however, been carefully preserved, much old 

 stonelaid aside in 1 83 3 having been 

 reintroduced in 1 887-9. An 

 addition to the width of the road- 

 way, for the better preservation of 

 the monument, was secured by the 

 purchase and demolition of the 

 Falcon Inn by the late Sir Henry 

 Meux, ! ait., and completed in 

 1892. 



Beyond Waltham Cross High 

 Street the road is called Turner's 

 Hill. On the west side is a row 

 of ten almshouses, founded in 

 1620. They arc plain ercctioni 

 of brick of one story, with mul- 

 lioned windows, and appear to 

 have been a good deal restored. 

 There is no inscription on them. 

 On Turner's Hill there still 

 remains the old watch-house built 

 in 1789. Further on is the New 

 Road, from which branches off 

 Blindman's Lane, an old road con* 

 taining a 17th-century farm-house, 

 now converted into a shop. At 

 the corner of the lane is a row of 

 three brick gabled cottages, two 

 stories in height with tiled roofs. 

 Northward of New Road is Ches- 

 hunt Street, in which are several 

 old houses and cottages. One of 

 these is now converted into a shop. 

 At the northern end on the cast 

 side is a brick house with steep 

 twin gables at the end. On the 

 front, over the shop, is a brick 

 panel in which are the initials 

 G.K.M. and the date 1689. There 

 is a moulded architrave round the 

 panel, with a swelled frieze above, 

 broken in the centre with a human 

 head, above which is a moulded 

 cornice and curved and broken pediment, in the 

 centre of which is a shield with coat of arms : a 

 cheveron between three garbs with a fleur de lis for 

 difference. Immediately to the north is the Anchor 

 Inn, a brick two-storied house of about the same 

 date, whilst on the same side of the road, further 

 south, adjoining Hill View, is a good two-storied 

 house of the early 18th century. 



Further northward along the same road is the ham- 

 let of Turnford, where there are the large nursery 

 gardens at Turnford Hall and elsewhere. A farm- 

 house beside the railway stands on the site of the 

 Cheshunt or Turnford Nunnery, of which nothing 



