Bushey Hall - detail from one of three prints in Chauncy's Historical Antiquities of Hertfordshire - circa 1700

The Victoria County History of Hertfordshire states that the foundation of a magnificent house known as Bushey Hall or Bushey Bury was laid by Thomas Earl of Salisbury in 1428. and details are given of its ownership over the centuries. In 1701 Sir Robert Marsham and his wife Margaret sold the estate to Thomas Ewer. It afterwards came into the the hands of Edward Marjoribanks, who held property in Bushey in 1839 and died in 1879.

Arthur Jones' Hertfordshire 1731-1800 as recorded in the Gentleman's Magazine includes the following entries under "Marriages":

19 July 1791. Rev. Dr. Lewin, of Bushey, to Miss Elizabeth Capper, of the same place.

There is an editorial note: The manor of Bushey was purchased in 1719 by Richard Capper, Esq., and remained in the Capper family for four generations. His great-grandson, Robert sold in 1814. It seems that the Lewin / Lewen family may have been tenants for part of this time. [AJ]

29 November 1791, Richard Holbrook, Esq., surveyor to the Crown for the parish of St James, to Miss Betsey Lewen, daughter of Francis Lewen, Esq., of Bushey Hall, Hertfordshire.

No reference to Francis Lewin was found in Cussan's History of Hertfordshire but it records that the nearby Aldenham churchyard contains a grave with the inscription:

James Lewin, of Bushey Mill, died 19th December, 1798, aged 65.

Bushey Hall, near Watford Kromo Series 21896 - Blum & Degan circa 1910

Bryen Wood's book Bushey contains a number of photographs of Bushey Hall. and provides some brief historical details.  The building shown in the above postcard was a neo-Jacobean extravaganza built by Edward Marjoribanks in 1865. However it was built on a completely different site (see below). The debts incurred in building the Hall lead to it being put up for sale in 1877 and it became a hydrotheraputic establishment (effectively a Victorian Health Farm) and later Bushey Hall Hotel. It was requisitioned during the Second World War and was demolished in 1955.

CDV of Bushey Hall photographed by Frederick Downer High Street address suggests a date of about 1870

December 2005

Dave Annal (dave.annal @t ntlworld.com) helpfully corrected the original version of this page saying: On the page about Bushey Hall you have a nice scan of a seventeenth century engraving and a postcard from 1910. What the page doesn't make clear is that not only are these completely different buildings, they weren't even in the same place! The original Bushey Hall was up in the north of the parish next to the River Colne.  Bushey Hall Farm is still there today but the manor house was pulled down in the early part of the nineteenth century. The second Bushey Hall is the one pictured in the postcard - it was located near to the current site of Bushey Grove leisure centre and was pulled down shortly after the second world war.  The name survives in that area in Bushey Hall Golf Club.  Just to confuse things even further, Bushey Hall school is situated on the site of Bushey Manor which was an entirely different manor house altogether!

Oh dear - I got it wrong first time - as although I had realised the two were not on the "same site" it was not uncommon for someone who wanted to upgrade the accommodation to build the new house on an adjacent part of the estate and either demolish the old one, or let it fall down, as at Gorhambury. However the fault emphasises the difficulties that can arise when there is a transfer of place names.

The Hall, Bushey Published by WHS in the Aldwych Series No S 8136 circa 1920?

There is a web page for Bushey

If you know of other books, websites, etc, relating to this place, please tell me.

Page updated October 2008