The PLA is currently consulting
on whether to change the historic name of ‘Bugsbys’ Reach’ – the section of the
River between Greenwich and Charlton – to Waterman’s Reach “In commemoration of the 500th Anniversary of
the 1514 Act of Parliament forregulating watermen, wherrymen and bargemen when
King Henry VlIlgranted Royal Assent”.
They also give a lot of inaccurate information about the background to
the ‘Bugsby’ name”. This, and details of
how you can put any points about it to PLA, can be found at http://www.pla.co.uk/assets/bugsbysreachaswatermansreachconsultationnotice.pdf
Briefly summarised it says- “In the days when the river was the
River and had real ships on it, Bugsby’s Reach was a place name which sailors
worldwide would have recognised . Those of you who knew Greenwich Peninsula
before 2000 will remember that near the Pilot Inn was a long jetty basically
going to Bugsby’s Hole - a traditional
term meaning ‘an anchorage’. The earliest reference to ‘Bugsby’s Hole’ seems to
be a report in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ of March 1735 to ‘Williams the
pirate’ being hung in chains at Bugsby’s Hole’. (Williams had been convicted at
a specially convened Admiralty Court for “running away with the ship Buxton
Snow, …..and selling the Ship; and also the Murder of the Captain, by cutting
his Throat with an Axe).The records for the Greenwich Peninsula and its
riverside, covering this period are very good. I have spent a lot of time going
through the records and I found nothing about
anyone called Bugsby as a landowner or tenant. Round the world there are other
‘Bugsby’s Holes’ - the nearest is to the west of Sheerness All of these
associations, the date and everything connect back to when ‘Bugsby’s Hole’
along with ‘Blackwall Fashion’ were names known to sailors and adventurers
around the world and to when Thames shipbuilders developed amazing vessels
which ruled (and plundered) the world. It is also about trade, and economic
thrust. But while we might want to distance ourselves from the politics of
empire and exploitation, surely we can respect the technologies developed by a
hierarchy of shipwrights, artisans and others – along our bit of the river. Our
comfortable lives derive directly from them.
But please read the whole
article, which is – er – by me.
Mary Mills
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