Bushey

Sister cities

• Landsberg am Lech

History

The first written record of Bushey is its entry in the Domesday Book of 1086, which describes a small agricultural village named 'Bissei' (which later became 'Biss(h)e' and then 'Bisheye' during the 12th century). However, chance archaeological findings of Stone Age tools provide evidence that the area was inhabited as far back as the Palaeolithic period. The town also has links to the Roman occupation of Britain, with the main road running through it being Roman; sites of possible Roman villas being unearthed in the area; and a Roman tessellated pavement was discovered near Chiltern Avenue. Bushey Heath's story begins in the Napoleonic Wars during a large food shortage. To help solve the problem, the government awarded the waste land to the east of Bushey to Bushey landowners to be used as farming; the land was more generally known as Bushey Common. Whilst the original aim was to produce food, being close to a railway and up to 500 ft above sea level with beautiful and broad views made the area attractive for housing developers. The 19th and 20th centuries marked the time of most change in Bushey, especially between 1860 and 1960. The population rose 28-fold within 200 years, from 856 in 1801, to just under 24,000 today. The expansion was for many reasons, one of the main ones being due to the boom in industry caused by the railway in the early 20th century. A result was that many new jobs were created in and around Watford, and in the early 1920s, Bushey's first council houses were built. More housing was later built for the service families working in defence organisations in Stanmore and Northwood. The expansion eventually died down because much of the land in and around Bushey was protected under the Metropolitan Green Belt after the Second World War. This…

Most-observed species

• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  44,501
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  39,350
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  37,469
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  37,420
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  33,521
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  31,476
• Rose-ringed Parakeet

  Psittacula krameri (Scopoli, 1769) · Aves
  30,580
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  29,666

Most recent

• M 3.1 — 2020-09-22
  5 km N of Aylesbury, United Kingdom
• M 3.9 — 2020-09-08
  2 km WSW of Pitstone, United Kingdom
• M 3.3 — 2019-02-27
  3 km SE of Dorking, United Kingdom
• M 2.8 — 2018-07-05
  1 km S of Ewhurst, United Kingdom
• M 2.6 — 2018-06-27
  5 km W of Capel, United Kingdom
• M 2.7 — 2018-04-01
  4 km E of Holmwood, United Kingdom