Editing Bushey (section)

==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 Britain|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.<ref>{{PastScape|mnumber=398249 |access-date= 27 March 2012}}</ref>

[[Image:Saint James Church.jpg|thumb|left|[[James, son of Zebedee|St. James]]'s Church, Bushey]]
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&nbsp;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, London|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 same Green Belt legislation was also partly responsible for the abandonment of the pre-war [[Edgware tube station|Edgware]] to [[Bushey Heath tube station|Bushey Heath]] extension as part of the [[Northern line#The Northern Heights plan|Northern Heights]] programme of the [[Northern line]] underground railway. The [[Metropolitan Green Belt]] put great restrictions on new development, and the plan had been to use the new railway to stimulate new housing around the new route; without the new housing the route was deemed no longer viable. However, as work was advanced at the onset of war, the depot was completed for use as bomber manufacture, and following the Second World War and Green Belt coming into force, it was converted into the [[Aldenham]] bus depot (of [[Cliff Richard]]'s ''[[Summer Holiday (1963 film)|Summer Holiday]]'' fame), which it remained until 1985, when it became derelict. It was redeveloped in 1996 and is now the Centennial Park Industrial Estate ({{coord|51.639954|-0.308561|source:google|display=inline}}). [[Bushey Heath tube station|Bushey Heath station]] would have been located at the intersection of Elstree Road and [[A41 road|Northwestern Avenue]] ({{coord|51.64245|-0.3200|source:Google|display=inline}}). Conceptual plans existed in the 1903 [[Act of Parliament]] for an [[Edgware]] to [[Watford]] railway that would have seen the railway extended at a later date though Bushey village and on to Watford market, but even less came of that than the partially completed [[Edgware tube station|Edgware]] to [[Bushey Heath tube station|Bushey Heath]] stretch. In the 1830s, the [[London and Birmingham Railway]] cut through the area between London and Watford though it did not initially serve Bushey. The railway passes to the north west of the town and crosses [[Bushey Arches Viaduct]], an original feature dating from 1837.<ref>{{NHLE|num=1101094|desc=Bushey Arches Railway Viaduct|accessdate=17 January 2024}}</ref>

The highest point in the historic county of [[Middlesex]] was in Bushey Heath on the border between Hertfordshire and Middlesex at the junction of the A4140 and the A409. At {{convert|153|m|ft|abbr=on}} above sea level, the grid reference was TQ 152937.

===Stories, legends and folklore===
The lack of farming in Bushey Heath meant that it was a heavily wooded area up to the 18th century; this, added to the lack of street lighting and police, meant that Bushey Heath's history is full of tales of thieves, highwaymen and even murder. According to Grant Longman's ''Robberies on Bushey Heath'', the road from Bushey Heath to [[Stanmore]] is said to be where the highwaymen lurked, ready to raid the dozen or so caravans that passed through Bushey Heath daily, carrying money from trade in London. Before venturing through the pass, parties of travellers and merchants would form at the ''Boot Inn'' at [[Edgware]] and the ''Three Crowns'' at Bushey Heath so they did not have to venture through the pass alone. Although one of the highwaymen responsible for the attacks is rumoured to have been the notorious [[Dick Turpin]], evidence suggests that he was in fact more active in the region of [[Essex]].