History
The area now known as Bushy Park has been settled for at least the past 4,000 years: the earliest archaeological records that have been found on the site date back to the Bronze Age. There is also evidence that the area was used in the medieval period for agricultural purposes.
When Henry VIII took over Hampton Court Palace from Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in 1529, the King also took over the three parks that make up modern day Bushy Park: Hare Warren, Middle Park and Bushy Park. A keen hunter, he established them as deer-hunting grounds.
His successors, perhaps less involved in the traditional sporting activities, added a number of picturesque features, including the Longford River, a nineteen-kilometre canal built on the orders of Charles I of England to provide water to Hampton Court, as well as the Park's various ponds. This period also saw the construction of the Park's main thoroughfare, Chestnut Avenue, which runs from Park Road in Teddington to the Lion Gate entrance of Hampton Court Palace on Hampton Court Road. This Avenue and the Arethusa 'Diana' Fountain were designed by Sir Christopher Wren as a grand approach to Hampton Court Palace.
The Park has long been popular with locals, but also attracts those from further afield. From the mid-Nineteenth Century until World War II Londoners came here to celebrate Chestnut Sunday here and to see the abundant blooming of the trees along Chestnut Avenue; the tradition resumed in 1993.
Among those who have served as Ranger (an honorary position, long including residence at Bushy House) are King William IV, while Duke of Clarence (1797–1830). To ensure his wife and consort, Queen Adelaide, could remain at their long-time home after his death, he immediately appointed her as his successor as Ranger (1830–1849).
During World War I, Bushy Park was home to the King's Canadian Hospital, and between the wars it hosted a camp for undernourished children.
During World War II, General Dwight D. Eisenhower planned the D-Day landings from Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) at Camp Griffiss in the Park. A memorial by Carlos Rey dedicated to the Allied troops who fell on D-Day now marks the spot where General Eisenhower's tent stood. From 1942, the site also hosted the de facto headquarters of the US Eighth Air Force under Maj Gen (later Lt Gen) Carl Spaatz, who went on to command the US Army Air Forces throughout the European Theatre of Operations (ETO). In early 1944, Spaatz became commander of the newly-formed US Strategic Air Forces (USSTAF) in Europe at Bushy Park.
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—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)