Old Amersham: A Day Trip from London to the End of the Metropolitan Line

A square church tower with a red and white flag, rising out of a jumble of tiled roofs. Green hills behind it. Pink blossom on the trees. This is Old Amersham, seen from the footpath above the town on a bright spring day.

It is a strange thing to reach from London. You get on the Metropolitan line, ride it to the very end, and step out into a suburb of 1930s houses on a hill. Then you walk down into the old town.

Below the station sits a medieval market town in the valley of a small chalk river. It has coaching inns, a 17th-century market hall, a Grade I listed church and a hillside memorial to seven people burned for their faith. If you like a small-town day out, like Burford and Witney, this one is much closer to home.

Where Is Old Amersham and How Is It Different from Amersham-on-the-Hill?

Amersham is really two towns. Old Amersham is the historic core, strung along the High Street in the valley of the River Misbourne. Amersham-on-the-Hill is the later town on the ridge to the north, built around the railway station.

The split goes back to 1 September 1892, when the Metropolitan Railway opened its station on the hill. It did not come down into the valley. Visit Amersham's town history says Captain Thomas Tyrwhitt Drake, the local landowner, agreed to the line on his ridge-top land so that he could not see it from his house at Shardeloes.

The houses followed the trains, and Amersham-on-the-Hill grew into a commuter town. The old town below kept its shape. That is the reason the High Street still looks the way it does.

A few railway curiosities. Amersham station is in fare zone 9, and it has the highest elevation on the whole London Underground network, 147 metres above sea level. It became the end of the line for Metropolitan trains after electrification in September 1960. Chiltern Railways trains from Marylebone also stop there.

The walk down from the station takes about 20 minutes, according to Visit Amersham. The footpaths around the town run between fences and fields, and on the day of my visit the grass was a vivid spring green. From the higher ground the church tower is the landmark that tells you where the old town is.

What Is There to See on Old Amersham High Street?

The High Street is wide, as market streets often are. It is lined with brick houses of different centuries, tall chimneys and old iron lamp posts. The Eagle pub sign hangs out over the pavement at number 145.

Amersham has been a market town for more than 800 years. King John granted its charter in 1200, allowing a Friday market and a fair on 7 and 8 September. A later charter of 1613 moved the market to Tuesdays. The Charter Fair still takes place every September.

In the middle of the street stands the Market Hall. Sir William Drake built it in 1682 as a gift to the town. It is red brick on open round arches, with a wooden cupola and clock on the roof. Historic England lists it at Grade II*.

The Amersham Museum's history pages are full of small details about it. The bell is inscribed with its maker's initials and the year 1682. The Drake arms show a hand holding a bloody axe. There was a town lock-up with the notice COMMIT NO NUISANCE, and a lead-headed pump dated 1785 on the east wall.

Two stories come with it too. One says the arches were designed to stop vagrants sleeping underneath. Another says the brewery opposite did not want a clock face turned towards its building, to discourage its workers from clock-watching. The museum gives both as local lore, not proven fact.

That brewery was Weller's, the town's biggest employer in the 19th century. It supplied a chain of pubs around the area, and Benskins bought and closed it in 1929. The number of old inns along the street is a clue to what else Amersham was. It was the first coach stop for travellers from London to Birmingham.

Further along, at 94 to 104 High Street, are the Drake Almshouses. Sir William Drake founded them in 1657 for six poor widows of the parish. They were later rebuilt as four homes and are still lived in, so look from the street.

Who Were the Amersham Martyrs?

This is the darkest story in the town, and one worth knowing before you climb the hill. The Amersham Martyrs were Lollards, followers of the ideas of John Wycliffe. They read the Bible in English and questioned the teachings of the Church. In the early 16th century that could be treated as heresy.

William Tylsworth was burned in 1506, in the reign of Henry VII. In 1521, under Henry VIII, six more were burned: Thomas Barnard, James Morden, John Scrivener, Robert Rave, Thomas Holmes and Joan Norman. That makes seven burned at Amersham, six men and one woman.

The detail that stays with people is the cruellest one. The children of William Tylsworth and John Scrivener were forced to light the fires under their own fathers. It is recorded on the memorial itself.

The Martyrs' Memorial was put up in 1931 by the Protestant Alliance. It stands on the hillside near Rectory Wood, about 100 yards from the place where the burnings are thought to have happened. According to Parks and Gardens UK, it was unveiled by a descendant of Thomas Harding, another Lollard, burned at Chesham in 1532.

You can reach it on foot by a path from St Mary's Church or by a second path from Station Road. The Amersham Museum also runs guided walks of the old town, and on the museum's site you can book a combined museum and walk ticket.

Which Old Amersham Inn Appeared in Four Weddings and a Funeral?

The Crown, at 16 High Street. It is a Grade II listed coaching inn, with Elizabethan timber framing and 16th-century wall paintings inside, including the royal arms of Elizabeth I. Sources differ on its exact age. Historic accounts place the building in the late 16th century, and The Crown itself gives 1620.

In the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral, a suite at The Crown is where Charles and Carrie spend the night after the first wedding. The Crown's own website makes a joke of it, saying it hopes its rooms have improved since. The inn was redesigned by Ilse Crawford as a modern coaching inn, with a pub, restaurant and rooms.

Amersham is not the only town to turn up on screen. Bampton, the Downton Abbey village, in Oxfordshire, is another example. In Amersham, The Crown's sign is one more hanging sign among the others on the street.

Away from the main street, the side lanes have rows of brick and flint cottages. Some had pastel painted doors and pots of tulips on the doorsteps. This building style is typical of the Chilterns, where brick, flint and clay tiles are the traditional local materials.

What Is Inside St Mary's Church, Amersham?

St Mary's is the church whose tower you see from every footpath around the town. It is Grade I listed. The core is 13th century, enlarged in the 14th, with a 15th-century tower and south porch. In the 1890s the outside was refaced in knapped flint with limestone dressings, so it looks more Victorian than it is.

Look for the octagonal stair turret on the tower, topped with small spirelets. Inside, according to Historic England, there are brasses from the 15th century onwards, a 14th-century font and 17th-century glass brought from Lamer in Hertfordshire.

The Drake Chapel holds the memorials of the family who owned the manor for nearly 400 years. The Amersham Museum's notes say it began as a 17th-century vestry and became a monument chapel in 1728. That was when Montague Garrard Drake died and needed a grander tomb than the chancel could hold.

His monument is by Peter Scheemakers and reportedly cost 500 guineas. Elizabeth Drake's monument of 1757 shows her with her six surviving children. There is also a small brass of 1623 to three-year-old John Drake.

One more curiosity from the museum's notes. The Reverend Arthur Tyrwhitt-Drake collapsed and died at his own wedding service in 1831, aged 31. Opening times for the church vary with services, so check the parish website before you plan a visit inside.

Where Can You Walk from Old Amersham?

Old Amersham sits inside the Chilterns National Landscape, 883 square kilometres of chalk hills, beech woods and farmland. It was designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1965. In November 2023 all AONBs in England were renamed National Landscapes.

The fields rise straight up from the back of the town. On the day I walked, paths ran along the hedges and people were out walking dogs. The hedges were in fresh leaf, and the whole valley looked green.

The first walk is up the hill to the Martyrs' Memorial, which I described above. The second goes west to Shardeloes. This is the Palladian house built between 1758 and 1766 for William Drake, with interiors by Robert Adam. Humphry Repton landscaped the park and dammed the Misbourne to form the lake.

Shardeloes has had a busy life. During the Second World War it was a maternity hospital for evacuees, where about 3,000 babies were born. The lyricist Tim Rice was one of them, in 1944. After the war it was saved from demolition and turned into private flats in the 1970s, so the house itself is not open.

Amersham Cricket Club has played in the grounds since 1856, with a gap between 1886 and 1905. Public footpaths pass the lake, and the Amersham Society's riverside walk heads that way from Church Mead, near the Old Town car park. Its western section to Shardeloes is about 4.8 kilometres.

The Misbourne is worth a look on the way. It is a chalk stream and a winterbourne, so it flows only part of the time. Between Amersham and the Chalfonts it often dries up completely. The Amersham Society explains this by the porous, broken chalk underneath, damaged by glaciers around 450,000 years ago.

If you want a longer walk day out from London, the Long Walk in Windsor is flatter and more formal. Old Amersham gives you something different: a working valley, footpaths through fields, and a small town at the bottom where you can finish the day.

Visiting Old Amersham: Practical Notes

Old Amersham works well as a half day or a full day. Like Winchcombe's high street, it rewards slow walking more than a list of sights. These notes were checked in September 2026. Check official sites before you travel.

📍 Where: Old Amersham, Buckinghamshire, in the Misbourne valley. The Market Hall stands in the middle of the High Street. The Amersham Museum is at 49 High Street, HP7 0DP.

🚇 Getting there: Metropolitan line to Amersham (zone 9), or Chiltern Railways from London Marylebone, about 30 to 37 minutes, twice an hour. From Amersham station it is about a 20-minute walk downhill to the old town, or a short taxi ride.

🚗 Parking: Amersham Old Town car park at The Broadway, HP7 0HL. There is also some parking along the High Street.

🎫 Admission: The town, church and footpaths are free. Amersham Museum is £7 for adults and free for under-18s, with a combined museum and guided walk ticket at £13.

⏰ Opening: Amersham Museum is open Wednesday to Sunday, 11.30am to 4pm, and on bank holiday Mondays. Check St Mary's Church times with the parish.

☕ Food: The High Street has several historic pubs, including The Crown and The Eagle, plus cafés and restaurants.

⏳ How long: Two to three hours for the High Street, church and museum. Add an hour for the walk up to the Martyrs' Memorial, or two for the riverside path to Shardeloes and back.

📷 Best time: A bright spring day, when the blossom is out and the fields are green. The footpaths above the town give the best views of the church tower.

🗺️ Nearby: The Martyrs' Memorial, Shardeloes lake, the Misbourne riverside walk, and Chesham, the terminus of the Metropolitan line's other branch.

♿ Access: The High Street is flat. The station walk is steep, and the field paths can be uneven or muddy after rain.

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