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Chance discoveries have established Bushey as having a long history
dating from as far back as the Palaeolithic period to the Iron Age.
Roman occupation is also indicated, with many
finds including an old Roman road, the main road which runs through
Bushey Heath and Bushey, and part of a tessellated pavement near Chiltern
Avenue.
A mention in the Domesday Book of 1086, as
'Bissei', has a description of arable farm and pastureland.
At that time the population amounted to less
than a hundred, and the first Norman Lord of the manor was Geoffrey
de Mandeville, who had a connection with William the Conqueror.
What followed on from him was a succession
of lords who seemed to side with the wrong party in the Middle Ages,
which often resulted in their demise in battle or execution.
Until the 19th Century, Bushey pretty much
remained a quiet agricultural village, the only industry being that
which supported farming and the farmers.
However, as time evolved men and women worked
in the local breweries of Stanmore and Watford, the silk ills of Watford
and Bushey, and by 1835 onwards, the brick and tile making industries
and the railway.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth Centuries,
Bushey was said to have the best water in the North London outskirts,
and some London families sent their children to live with Bushey families
to avoid the city epidemics of Cholera and Typhoid.
Dr Thomas Monro, a physician to George III,
purchased an estate at Merry hill in 1805. As a noted patron of the
arts and an amateur artist, he helped establish many watercolourists,
such as Henry Edridge and William Henry Hunt who became frequent visitors
to the monro estate.
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Together with his sons Alexander, Henry and John they produced many
watercolour paintings of Bushey which today serve as a record of Bushey
living in the 19th Century.
In 1837, a young Bavarian artist, Hubert Herkomer,
visited Bushey, fell in love with the place and established himself
as a portrait painter.
In 1883 the Herkomer Art School was founded
and for the next 21 years attracted hundreds of art students to Bushey,
which had an influence until the 1960's.
After the Second World War, a lot of the land
in Bushey was protected by Green Belt legislation, and the rest became
golf courses and schools.
Today, the population of Bushey is 24,000.
There are many areas of interest for residents
and visitors alike. Many of the old art studios built in the Victorian
and Edwardian eras are still standing, and the main part of the village,
near the Church of St. James and the village pond, is a conservation
area. St. James's church yard is the largest in southern England and
contains a variety of flora.
Quaint antique shops, restaurants, public houses
and general stores run along the high street, and free parking is available
for residents and visitors.
The Bushey
museum in Rudolph Road, has a more in depth guide to the history
of Bushey, and a wide selection of exhibits of local interest, including
the work of the local artists who helped give Bushey its unique art
history.
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