Chalfont Common is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

in the parish of

Chalfont St Peter Chalfont St Peter is a large village and civil parish in southeastern Buckinghamshire, England. It is in a group of villages called The Chalfonts which also includes Chalfont St Giles and Little Chalfont. The villages lie between High Wycombe a ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, England. It is located in the

Chiltern Hills The Chiltern Hills is a chalk escarpment in England. The area, northwest of London, covers stretching from Goring-on-Thames in the southwest to Hitchin in the northeast - across Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, and Bedfordshire. ...

, approximately one mile to the north east of

village centre. Chalfont Common is west-north-west of

Charing Cross Charing Cross ( ) is a junction in Westminster, London, England, where six routes meet. Clockwise from north these are: the east side of Trafalgar Square leading to St Martin's Place and then Charing Cross Road; the Strand leading to the City; ...

, central

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. It is located east of the

River Misbourne The River Misbourne rises in a field on the outskirts of Great Missenden in Buckinghamshire, passing through Little Missenden, Old Amersham, Chalfont St Giles, Chalfont St Peter and under the Chiltern railway line and the M25 motorway to its ...

and was one of Chalfont St Peter's three commons (the other two being Gold Hill Common and Austenwood Common). Housing of all sorts developed around and on the common, some dating back to the 1890s. In the 1960s a post office was constructed on the common, which has since closed. It is also the home of the

Epilepsy Society The Epilepsy Society (formerly known as the National Society for Epilepsy) is the largest medical charity in the field of epilepsy in the United Kingdom, providing services for people with epilepsy for over 100 years. Based in Chalfont St Peter, Bu ...

which was founded in 1892.

Gott's Monument

Chalfont Common is also the home of Gott's Monument which was erected in 1785 by Sir H T Gott. According to local tradition, the monument either commemorates a hunt attended by George III, or an incident in which the king got lost in the forest surrounding the monument. The plaque on the obelisk, which is the height of horseback, reads:

1785
To NEWLAND I Mile III Furl.g's
To Chesham VII Miles
Built by Sir H T Gott
Restored by W Brown in 1879
To Denham IV Miles
To Uxbridge VI Miles
LONDON XXI

The monument was damaged in 1879 by a lightning strike and was rebuilt. Remarkably it was struck by lightning again in the 1960s, so was reduced from its original size of 60 ft to 20 ft. The monument has been

Grade II listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

since 22 December 1958.Gott's Monument, British Listed Buildings
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References

Hamlets in Buckinghamshire {{Buckinghamshire-geo-stub