Beggars Bush: A Perambulation through the Disciplines of History, Geography, Archaeology, Literature, Philology, Natural History, Botany, Biography & Beggary

Sticky: Records of Huntingdonshire

My thanks are due to Philip Saunders for many things in my researches into Beggars Bush.

His article Beggar’s Bush to King’s Bush, Records of Huntingdonshire, Vol.3 No.2, (1993) p.13-15, first alerted me to the role of Saxton’s Five Counties Map. He then helped as Principal Archivist at Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies Service. I am now grateful to him for resurrecting Records of Huntingdonshire, Journal of the Huntingdonshire Local History Society, and for publishing my article Beggar’s Bush Revisited in Vol.4 No.3 p.32-37. This updates his original article with some of the material from this website on maps, anthologies and John Taylor.

Philip Saunders has also found another map of Beggars Bush for the cover – William Kip’s 1607 version of Saxton’s map, which transforms Saxton’s single tree to a whole forest around Beggesbush. This is likely to be artistic licence rather than any resurvey.

Neil Howlett, Beggar’s Bush Revisited in Vol.4 No.3 (2014) p.32-37

Copies are available from Philip Saunders, 21 Crowlands, Cottenham, Cambridge CB24 8TE

paksaunders@talk21.com

 

Posted: February 23rd, 2014 | Filed under: Places, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , | No Comments »


Christopher Saxton’s Five Counties Map 1576

Saxton’s county maps were the first national cartographic survey of England. They, and later maps based on them, were very important for the preservation and distribution of the place name & literary phrase Beggars Bush. They may have contributed to the mistaken connection of beggars with the site at Godmanchester near Huntingdon.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: March 20th, 2011 | Filed under: Writers | Tags: , , , , , , , , | No Comments »


Oscott, Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire Beggars Bush 1821

The Beggars Bush Inn stands at a crossroads on a main road and there is still a bush. However, neither are the originals, and the name has been applied to several other places, pubs & bushes in the area. It is probably impossible now to fix the original location. It also has a naming story, which cannot be verified. If nothing else the history shows the popularity of the name, and how it can become attached to local features.
Read the rest of this entry »

Posted: March 13th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments »