Scope: the Old Town only
This guide covers the Amersham Old Town conservation area in Buckinghamshire, about 23.3 hectares, and nothing beyond it. Amersham-on-the-Hill and the other conservation areas in the wider town lie outside the study area, so none of the figures below should be applied to them.
Buckinghamshire Council is the planning authority, and its heritage portal sits alongside national heritage, geology, flood and housing datasets here. Those sources describe the conservation area as a whole, so each property is still checked against its own records.
Old Town records: designation, listing, ground, water and homes
Every statement below links to the public record it comes from; sources were re-checked on .
Designation
Buckinghamshire Council's heritage portal record for the old town states that the conservation area was designated on 10 March 1969.
On planning.data.gov.uk the conservation area record maps it at about 23.3 hectares.
That record links the council's Old Town document, and the council also keeps a page on conservation areas in Buckinghamshire.
No heritage Article 4 direction for the Old Town appears in the Article 4 collection on planning.data.gov.uk, so the council's conservation areas page is where to confirm whether any applies before permitted development is assumed.
Listed entries
A query of the NHLE feature service on 1 November 2026 returns 160 list entries inside the boundary: 1 at Grade I, 6 at Grade II* and 153 at Grade II.
The Grade I entry is the Church of St Mary.
At Grade II* are the Market Hall, The Gables, 56, 58 and 60 High Street, Sir William Drake's Almshouse, Elmodesham House and The Kings Arms Hotel.
At 160 entries in about 23 hectares, listing is dense enough that a neighbour, a boundary wall or an outbuilding may be listed even where the house is not, so the national list is searched for the address and the structures around it.
Listed building consent covers internal as well as external works, and the council can require a later owner to put unauthorised work right, so consent history is requested alongside the list entry.
Chalk and surface deposits
Every sample point, five of five, falls on New Pit Chalk Formation in the BGS 1:50,000 bedrock data.
Over the chalk, the BGS superficial layer shows alluvium at four points and head at the fifth, both described as clay, silt, sand and gravel.
Alluvium and head vary from place to place and can be soft or compressible, while chalk can contain solution features, so the BGS mapping is a reason for care with cracking, drainage and soakaways rather than a diagnosis.
Older houses may stand on shallow footings in that surface material, which makes leaking drains and water from roofs and yards important to trace, using the geology viewer only as context.
River flood zones
The Flood Map for Planning places 20.3% of the conservation area in Flood Zone 2 and 6.6% in Flood Zone 3, from rivers in both cases.
Those zones do not allow for defences and do not describe individual buildings, so an Old Town address is also checked on the long-term flood risk check on GOV.UK, which takes in surface water.
Because alluvium is mapped at four of the five points and a fifth of the area is in Flood Zone 2, ground-floor levels, any cellar and the drainage are looked at closely, with the flood map position noted for the address.
Homes in the surrounding LSOAs
Two surrounding statistical areas, LSOAs E01017745 and E01017744, contain about 1,540 dwellings in the Valuation Office Agency's 2025 property stock tables, where every count is rounded to the nearest 10.
The VOA build-period counts are spread across the decades: 20.1% before 1900, 2.6% in 1900-1918, 22.7% in 1919-1939, 21.4% in 1945-1972, 16.2% in 1973-1999 and 16.2% from 2000, with 1.3% unknown.
By type, the same release records 28.6% flats or maisonettes, 23.4% detached houses, 21.4% semi-detached houses, 16.2% terraced houses and 8.4% bungalows.
Bands F to H account for 44.2% of those dwellings in the band counts, led by band F at 21.4% and band G at 18.8%.
These are surrounding LSOAs rather than the conservation area itself, so the VOA figures give the setting rather than a count of the Old Town's buildings.
Instruction guide for the Old Town
One local guide is published for this area; it is listed below with the practice-wide page for the same service.
Practice-wide services
Neighbouring towns with their own guides
Nearby towns with guides on this site include Chorleywood, Rickmansworth, Beaconsfield, Gerrards Cross and Berkhamsted; the Areas We Serve index lists the rest.
Questions about Old Town properties
When was the Old Town conservation area designated?
Buckinghamshire Council's heritage portal gives 10 March 1969. Planning.data.gov.uk shows only the year, so the council's date is the one to rely on; the mapped boundary itself covers about 23.3 hectares.
Does this guide cover Amersham-on-the-Hill?
No. Amersham-on-the-Hill lies outside the study area, as do the town's other conservation areas. The listing, flood and geology figures here apply only to the Old Town conservation area, and the housing statistics only to the two LSOAs around it.
Is a house in the Old Town likely to be listed?
Many are. The NHLE data returns 160 list entries inside a boundary of about 23.3 hectares: 153 at Grade II, 6 at Grade II* and 1 at Grade I. An entry can cover more than one building, so the record for the address itself is checked.
Is the Old Town at risk of flooding?
Parts are mapped: 20.3% of the conservation area is in Flood Zone 2 and 6.6% in Flood Zone 3 on the Flood Map for Planning, all from rivers. Those zones ignore defences and are not property-level, so check the address on the long-term flood risk service too.
What does chalk under alluvium mean for an old building?
The BGS map shows New Pit Chalk at all five points with alluvium or head above. Surface deposits can be soft and variable and chalk can have solution features, so drains, soakaways and crack patterns are examined rather than any cause being assumed.
What records help when buying a listed house?
The list entry, any listed building consents and planning permissions, building control records, and invoices or specifications for past repairs such as roof, chimney or window work. Missing consents for internal changes are worth raising before exchange, as the obligation to put them right can pass to a new owner.
How we work on an instruction
Hampstead Chartered Surveyors is a RICS-regulated firm (RICS Regulated Firm No. 923064) working from its registered Hampstead NW3 office. The firm does not claim premises, staff or completed instructions in an individual locality, and it does not treat a neighbourhood name as evidence about a particular building.
An instruction starts with the full address, the decision the client faces and the documents already available, such as leases, drawings, notices or earlier reports. The scope, fee and inspection date are confirmed in writing only after that review, and access to roofs, lofts, basements or common parts is agreed before the visit.
Reports include RICS Level 2 and Level 3 home surveys, building and defect investigations, party wall appointments, reinstatement cost assessments, contract administration and schedules of condition. Each report records what was inspected, what could not be seen and what further investigation the evidence supports.
Public datasets such as the conservation-area register, the National Heritage List for England, British Geological Survey mapping, the Environment Agency flood map and Valuation Office Agency housing statistics describe areas rather than individual properties. They frame questions before an inspection; they never replace it.
Reviewed by Savas Bulduk BSc (Hons) MRICS, Director & Chartered Building Surveyor at Hampstead Chartered Surveyors & Building Consultancy. Last reviewed: . Our people · RICS firm record