 Waltham Cross was, for centuries from the building of its cross in the 1290s, a smaller locality in the ancient parish of Cheshunt in the Hertford hundred of Hertfordshire.The southern part of Cheshunt became increasingly to be considered Waltham Cross, which was formed into a separate ecclesiastical parish in 1855, with its church of Holy Trinity (since renamed Christ Church) built in 1832 and designed by the architect Edward Blore.The road, here long called the High Street, had 'Spital Houses' (Hospitalry Houses) near the county boundary, originally built in 1625 but rebuilt in 1908.