Coordinates: 51°38′34″N 0°21′37″W / 51.6429°N 0.3604°W / 51.6429; -0.3604

Bushey (population 24,000) is a town in the Hertsmere borough of Hertfordshire in the East of England. Bushey Heath is a large neighbourhood south east of Bushey on the boundary with the London Borough of Harrow reaching elevations of 165 metres (541 ft) above sea level.

History

The first written record of Bushey is an account in the Domesday Book, 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.

The origin of the town’s name is not fully known. With the original name ‘Bissei’, an early theory in Reverend J.B. Johnstone’s book The Place-Names of England and Wales states that it may have meant ‘Byssa’s Isle’, and that it started life as a lake-village surrounded by marshes, streams and lakes. However, a more modern theory (albeit a less romantic one) is that it is simply derived from the Old English word bysce and Old French boisseie, meaning a ‘place covered with wood’. The latter theory could prove more apt, as the town is located in the valleys which extend southwards from the Chiltern Hills, which were once covered in dense forests of oak, elm, ash, hazel and juniper.

Hertfordshire (ⁱ/ˈhɑːrtfərdʃɪər/; abbreviated Herts) is a county in southern England, bordered by Bedfordshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Essex to the east, Buckinghamshire to the west and Greater London to the south.

Four towns have between 50,000 and 100,000 residents: Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Watford and St Albans. The county town, Hertford, once the main market town for the medieval agricultural county ranks 13th in population today deriving its name from a hart (stag) and a ford used as the components of the county's coat of arms and flag. Elevations are high for the region in the north and west. These reach over 240m in the western projection around Tring which is in the Chilterns. The county's borders are approximately the watersheds of the Colne and Lea, which flow southwards each accompanied by a canal. Hertfordshire is at the edge of the London Basin and most of its undeveloped land is agricultural and protected as Metropolitan Green Belt. The volume of intact medieval and Tudor buildings surpasses London, in places in well-preserved conservation areas, especially in St Albans which includes some remains of Verulamium, the town where in the third century AD an early recorded British martyrdom took place. Saint Alban, a Romano-British soldier, took the place of a Christian priest and was beheaded on Holywell Hill. His martyr's cross of a yellow saltire on a blue background is reflected in the flag and coat of arms of Hertfordshire.

Hertfordshire was a constituency of the European Parliament located in the United Kingdom, electing one Member of the European Parliament by the first-past-the-post electoral system. Created in 1979 for the first elections to the European Parliament, it was abolished in 1999 on the adoption of proportional representation for European elections in the United Kingdom. It was succeeded by the East of England region.

Boundaries

On its creation in 1979, it consisted of the parliamentary constituencies of Hertford and Stevenage, Hertfordshire East, Hertfordshire South, Hertfordshire South West, St Albans, Watford and Welwyn and Hatfield.

After the 1984 boundary changes based on the new UK parliamentary constituencies created in 1983, it consisted of the constituencies of Broxbourne, Hertford and Stortford, Hertsmere, St. Albans, South West Hertfordshire, Watford and Welwyn Hatfield. Stevenage was transferred to Bedfordshire South.

1994 saw further boundary changes and the constituency now consisted of Hertsmere, North Hertfordshire, St. Albans, South West Hertfordshire, Watford, Welwyn Hatfield and West Hertfordshire. Broxbourne as well as Hertford and Stortford were now part of Essex West and Hertfordshire East. North Hertfordshire and West Hertfordshire had previously been part of Bedfordshire South.

Hertfordshire was a county constituency covering the county of Hertfordshire in England. It returned two Knights of the Shire to the House of Commons of England until 1707, then to the House of Commons of Great Britain until 1800, and to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1290 until 1832. The Reform Act 1832 gave the county a third seat with effect from the 1832 general election.

Elections were held using the bloc vote system, when contested. However, even after the 1832 reforms, contested elections were the exception: of the 17 elections from 1832 to 1880, 9 were uncontested, including the 1880 general election. In such cases all the nominated candidates were returned without a vote.

History

The constituency consisted of the historic county of Hertfordshire. (Although Hertfordshire contained two boroughs, Hertford and St Albans, each of which elected two MPs in its own right, these were not excluded from the county constituency, and owning property within the borough could confer a vote at the county election.)