Bromley, Kent Beggars Bush 1832

The site appears to be close to the junction of the A21 and A233 on the edge of Bromley Common. The area is consistent with the derogatory usage. There are local stories associating the location with highwaymen, and two elm trees, but they give the impression of being developments of the place name.

Freeman, C., The history, antiquities, improvements … of the parish of Bromley, Kent, Beckley, Bromley, 1832 p.27 in the context of describing the enclosure of the Common in 1822  saying “Little, before this was effected, was found on so dreary a tract of land, to gratify the curiosity of the lover of novelty . . . for a considerable distance along the road, there was scarcely a house to be seen to cheer the benighted traveller; there were, it is true, at dire extremity of the Common a few scattered cottages, these may have served as a relief to the eye of the stranger while viewing so extensive a space of unproductive soil . . . A few years ago, the whole of Bromley Common was uncultivated, and that part of it formerly called Prince’s Plain, and indeed other parts, were covered with furze, rushes, and various kinds of heath.”

Freeman then says “In the year 1823, the road, which formerly branched off by the seat late in the possession of Major Rhodes, was, by an order of the Justices, diverted and turned, the land stopped up, and has since been enclosed with a wooden fence. The course of the new road here is rather winding, but the old road was not only dreary, but afforded every facility for the commission of robberies.” As a footnote to this says “Near this spot, some years ago, there stood a tree of immense circumference, commonly called ‘Beggar’s Bush,’ probably from the fact of its being a place of secrecy for highwaymen and footpads.”

Elsewhere Freeman records that Major Rhode lived at Oakley House. The site of Oakley House and the diversion is shown on the sketch map showing Bromley Common in 1820. 

A draft Report for The London Borough of Bromley for the desigation of the common as a Conservation Area recorded:

“Today, Bromley Common is a wedge of land from Masons Hill to Keston Mark but historically it was a much wider area covering three hundred acres on either side of Hastings Road. The Lord of the Manor owns the common although the commoners have certain prescribed rights to use it. Historically Bromley Common was an over-grown wasteland through which tracks and pathways passed. It was notorious for robbers and highwaymen, the last of whom, it is said, was hanged in 1798. Some large residences were developed on the edge of the common in the 18th century, The Rookery (now demolished), Oakley House and Elmfield on Hastings Road, being the most substantial.”

The area was certainly well known for robberies. In particular the diarist and antiquary John Evelyn recorded a graphic description of being robbed in 1652 as he passed “the Procession Oak”. Aubrey’s account is set out. This was not the same tree recorded by Freeman.

In The Hastings Road and the “Happy Springs of Tunbridge” (1906) the author C.G. Harper says the location of the Oak has been lost, and specifies the Beggars Bush as an elm, writing:

“The Rookery belongs to a time before this fine road came into being : to that time when travellers came painfully up the hill to that open common much dwelt upon by old county historians. Opposite the mansion in those days stood the two polled elms known from time immemorial as Great and Little Beggars’ Bush, and known most unfavourably, for in the shade cast by them at night not merely beggars, but those highwaymen of the meaner sort called footpads, lurked.”

Although it is not the same location there is another Beggars Bush dated 1565 at Hartfield East Sussex. That was a terminus on the Tunbridge Wells to Maresfield Turnpike, which connected with the Bromley to Farnborough Turnpike. This may provide a source for the place name in Bromley as travellers following Aubrey’s route from London to the South Coast would have passed both locations.

OS Grid

TQ422665

Thanks

Rob Barnes

Posted: April 24th, 2011 | Filed under: Places | Tags: Bromley, Hartfield, Kent, highwaymen, naming story | No Comments »