The British Monarchy Miscellany

by Alex David

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  Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

  The town was known as Leamington Priors until the 19th century when it was developed into a fashionable spa town. It was renamed Royal Leamington Spa in 1838 by Queen Victoria who had visited the town in 1830 as a young princess, and who patronised the town again with a visit later in 1858.

  Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent

  King Edward VII granted the Royal prefix to the spa town of Tunbridge Wells in 1909 in recognition of its long associations with the monarchy. Queen Henrietta Maria was the first royal to visit the town in 1629 to take the waters, and was later followed by Charles II and Queen Anne in the late 17th century. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert also visited in the 19th century.

  The Royal Town of Caernarfon, Wales

  Caernarfon’s royal associations go back to the reign of Edward I in the 1280s when Caernarfon Castle was built as an official royal seat of government in Wales, and the future Edward II was born there in 1284. Queen Elizabeth II honoured these associations in 1963 by granting royal status to the borough of Caernarfon. When that borough was abolished in 1974 and Caernarfon became a town

  council the Royal title was transferred to the town’s official name.

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  Royal Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire

  This small town in Wiltshire captured the nation’s

  imagination between 2007 and 2011 when most of its

  population turned out to honour the last journeys of fallen soldiers being repatriated from Iraq and

  Afghanistan, which by necessity had to travel through the town from Royal Air Force Base Lyneham nearby to reach the medical coroner in Oxford. Simple hearse rides soon turned into full funerary processions during which the entire town came to a standstill to pay silent respects to the dead soldiers, many of whom were young boys of 18-20 years of age. The processions ended in 2011 when RAF

  Base Lyneham closed and the repatriations were moved to RAF Base Brize Norton, however in recognition of the role Wootton Basset played in honouring hundreds of fallen soldiers the government petitioned Queen

  Elizabeth II to grant the Royal prefix to the town, which she granted in perpetuity at the end of 2011.

  Royal Counties

  The Royal County of Berkshire

  Queen Elizabeth II granted the unique title of Royal County to Berkshire in 1958 in recognition of the county’s strong links with the monarchy. Berkshire contains the town of Windsor, Windsor Castle, and the 5,000-acres royally-owned Windsor Great Park.

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  Historic Royal Settlements

  Many settlements in Britain bear words in their names recalling their royal origins and associations, some of them going back 1,000 years or more. Towns and villages bearing ‘King’ or ‘Queen’ in their names often indicate that the land on which the town stands today was once owned by a monarch or his consort. Another way of

  marking royal possession was to append the Latin word

  ‘Regis’, meaning ‘of the King’ to the name of the

  settlement, with some settlements having borne both

  ‘Regis’ and ‘King’ in their names throughout their

  histories. Other settlements, like Queensferry, indicate origin rather than possession. Following below is a selection of some of the most notable historic royal settlements in Great Britain, listed in rough chronological order of when they received their royal names.

  Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey

  Widely considered the oldest town in England to bear the name Kingston, it was originally thought that the name derived from the ancient coronation stone (the ‘King’s Stone’) used to crown Anglo-Saxon kings in the town between 899-979. New research however has shown that the settlement bore the name of Cyninges Tun, meaning

  ‘settlement of the King’ as far back as the year 838.

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  Kingsclere, Hampshire

  The first mention of Kingsclere comes from King Alfred the Great’s will in the late 9th century, when the village was part of a royal manor. The name was formalised in the 12th century.

  Kingswinford, West Midlands

  Originally the possession of Anglo-Saxon kings, the name means ‘ford for the King’s swine.’ The manor was listed as a royal possession in the Domesday Book, and was also known as Swinford Regis during the Middle Ages.

  Milton Regis, Kent

  The ancient settlement of Milton in Kent was already described as belonging to the King in Anglo-Saxon times, and is known to have been part of King Edward the

  Confessor’s possessions in the 11th century. It was first described as Middleton Terra Regis in the Domesday

  Book in 1086.

  Rowley Regis, West Midlands

  This Black Country historic parish was first recorded bearing the suffix Regis in a survey of 1140 during the reign of King Stephen, when the estate was noted to be royal hunting grounds.

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  Queen Camel, Somerset

  This oddly named town achieved its name through two different sources: Camel is a modern contraction of the ancient Celtic word Cantmael, possibly meaning ‘bare hill district’; the Queen prefix was added in the 13th century, possibly because the village’s estate belonged to Queen Eleanor of Provence, wife of King Henry III.

  King’s Sutton, Northamptonshire

  The village of Sudtone was first listed as belonging to the King as a royal manor in the Domesday Book of 1086. It was recorded as Sutton Regis in 1252, and finally

  renamed as Kings Sutton from 1294.

  Lyme Regis, Dorset

  The Regis suffix was first added to the town’s name in 1284 after Edward I granted a Royal Charter to Lyme.

  Kingston Upon Hull, Yorkshire

  Originally called Wyke on Hull, King Edward I renamed the town Kingston upon Hull after he bought the estate which contained the town in 1293.

  North Queensferry and South Queensferry,

  Scotland

  Both places derive their name from the ferry service established by Queen Margaret of Scotland, wife of King Malcolm III, in the late 11th century to help pilgrims make 693

  their way to the holy church of St Andrews in Fife, beyond the Firth of Forth. The name Queensferry began to be used widely from the year 1300.

  Kings Langley, Hertfordshire

  The original village of Langley gained its royal prefix after a royal manor was built there in the 13th century which later became Kings Langley Palace. The palace all but disappeared by the 17th century.

  Bere Regis, Dorset

  An improbable local legend says that this village in Dorset, which had been royal property since Saxon times, acquired its name when King John visited the area and was so pleased with the quality of the local beer that he decreed that the place be called Beer Regis. In reality, the name Bere is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and the first mention of a royal prefix occurs in 1303 when it was first called Kingsbere. The name Bere Regis was first recorded in the 16th century, and both royal names were used

  interchangeably until the 18th century when the present name was permanently adopted.

  Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire

  Houghton was first mentioned as a royal manor in the Domesday Book in 1086. The town was briefly called

  Kyngshouton in the 13th century, with the name

  Houghton Regis first recorded in 1353.

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  Prince Risborough, Buckinghamshire

  Although a royal manor since the reign of King Harold Godwinson in 1066, Risborough only acquired its princely name between the 1340s and 1370s when it was owned

  by Edward the Black Prince, son of King Edward III. The manor was subsequently held by other Princes of Wales.

  Beeston Regis, Norfolk

  Originally named Beeston-next-to-the-sea, the village became Beeston Regis after Henry of Lancaster became King Henry IV in 1399, presumably because the land was part of a Lancastrian estate.

  Kingsbury Regis, Somerset

  This small ham
let, now part of Milborne Port, received its unique double royal name in two stages. The name

  Kingsbury was first recorded in the 13th century to note that the manor belonged to the King and to separate it from other estates. The Regis suffix was first recorded in 1431 when the estate passed to the Beaufort royal line.

  King’s Lynn, Norfolk

  This town was originally called Bishop’s Lynn in the Middle Ages when it was under the control of the Bishop of Norwich. After the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s the area came under the royal control of King Henry VIII and was renamed King’s Lynn.

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  Grafton Regis, Northamptonshire

  Grafton was originally the family seat of the Woodville family and was for a time called Grafton Woodville. It was the birthplace of Elizabeth Woodville and the site of her secret marriage to King Edward IV in 1464. After the Woodville manor came into the hands of King Henry

  VIII—Elizabeth’s grandson—he renamed the town

  Grafton Regis.

  Queen Charlton, Somerset

  The Queen prefix was given to the village of Charlton after King Henry VIII gifted the town’s estate to his sixth wife, Catherine Parr, in the 1540s.

  Kingstanding, Birmingham

  According to a local legend this settlement received its colourful name in 1642 at the beginning of the English Civil War when King Charles I addressed local people at the site while standing on a mound at the centre of the village (i.e. ‘king standing’). The name however seem to predate the event and it is thought to originate with the practice of medieval kings standing on the same

  mound—a Neolithic barrow—while hunting deer in the

  area.

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  Other Royally Named Towns

  The towns below are neither Royal Towns nor historic royal settlements but received instead their royal names more recently to honour particular individuals or events.

  Princetown, Devon

  Charles Tyrwhitt, secretary to George Prince of Wales (later George IV), founded this village in Dartmoor National Park in 1785 on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. It was therefore named after the Prince of Wales who owned the Duchy. Dartmoor Prison was later built on the same grant of land near the town.

  Queensferry, Flintshire, Wales

  This ferry town on the River Dee, on the Welsh border with England near Chester, was first renamed Kingsferry in the 1820s to celebrate the accession of King George IV.

  It was then renamed Queensferry in 1837 at the

  accession of Queen Victoria and the name has remained unchanged ever since.

  Queen Adelaide, Cambridgeshire

  Although the area had scattered farms since the Middle Ages, this hamlet north of Cambridge expanded and was officially charted in the 1840s around a new railway station. It took its name from a nearby pub called The 697

  Queen Adelaide, which in turn was named after Queen Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, consort of William IV, who was a popular Queen Dowager at the time.

  Bognor Regis, West Sussex

  After spending three months in Bognor recuperating from surgery in 1929 King George V agreed to the residents’

  request that the suffix Regis be added to the town’s name, in recognition of the fact that during that time the entire Royal Family had been spending time in the

  seaside resort. The town however was not made a Royal Town, which is why its case is peculiar and is listed separately in this section.

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  London’s Royal Parks

  London possesses eight Royal Parks that are owned by the Crown and are open to the public. Five are located in central London while three are located in the outer suburbs, together adding up to roughly 5,000 acres of land available for public recreation during opening hours.

  Almost all of them began as royal hunting reserves and were gradually opened to the public over the centuries, often after major redesigns. The Crown Lands Act of 1851

  opened all Royal Parks to the public, however they still remain under ownership of the Crown as part of the

  monarchy’s hereditary possessions. In central London, Crown ownership of Green Park, St James’s Park and

  Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens ensured that their land remained free from development and create large green spaces at the centre of the capital. The parks are run by the Royal Parks agency, a government body managing the land on behalf of the Crown, and their funding comes directly from the government, not from the Royal

  Household or local councils. Each park has individual opening hours during which the public has free access to its land and facilities, and they are policed by a dedicated unit of the London Metropolitan Police. Listed on the following pages are individual descriptions for each park.

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  The Eight Royal Parks

  Green Park

  Location: Central London, between Piccadilly and Buckingham Palace.

  Dimensions: 40 acres (16 hectares).

  History: The smallest of the Royal Parks has its origins in land first bought for royal use by King Charles II in 1668.

  In the 18th century it was the site of popular fireworks entertainments including Handel’s premiere of Music for the Royal Fireworks in 1749. The park was also a popular rendezvous for duels. It was open to the general public in 1826.

  Features: The Canada Gate by the Buckingham Palace forecourt; the Canada Memorial to soldiers who died in the First and Second World Wars; the RAF Bomber

  Command Memorial; the park is one of two used for

  royal gun salutes.

  St James’s Park

  Location: Central London, between Whitehall and Buckingham Palace.

  Dimensions: 57 acres (23 hectares).

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  History: The oldest of the Royal Parks in central London takes its name from a leper hospital dedicated to Saint James that stood on the site in the 13th century. King Henry VIII first enclosed the area as royal hunting grounds in the 1530s after building the adjacent St James’s Palace. King James I turned the grounds into a park in the early 1600s and kept a large collection of animals in it. Charles II had the park redesigned,

  introduced a water canal, and opened it to the public in the 1660s after which unfortunately it became a popular site for lewd encounters. The present park was the

  romantic creation of John Nash for King George IV in the 1820s after which it became a fashionable place.

  Features: St James’s Park Lake, with a pelican colony on a small island; the Blue Bridge over the lake with

  romantic views of Buckingham Palace; the Tiffany Jet Fountain; the Household Guards Memorial; the National Police Memorial; the South African Royal Artillery

  Memorial.

  Hyde Park

  Location: Central London, between Mayfair and Kensington Gardens.

  Dimensions: 350 acres (142 hectares).

  History: Central London’s largest open space was once a manor owned by the monks of Westminster Abbey.

  Henry VIII seized the land during the dissolution of the 701

  monasteries in the 1530s and turned it into a deer

  hunting reserve. Charles I first opened the park to the public in 1637, and during the English Civil War

  earthworks were built in it by Parlamentarians to defend Westminster from Royalist attacks. William III and Mary II built Kensington Palace at the western edge of the Park in the 1690s and created a route on the southern edge

  which came to be called Rotten Row (thought to be a corruption of the French ‘Route De Roi’). The route became the first street in England to be lit at night, to allow the people to travel in safety from Westminster to Kensington. Queen Caroline of Ansbach, consort of King George II, formally divided Hyde Park in two by

  commissioning the Serpentine Lake and creating

  Kensington Gardens on the western side of the park in the 1730s. The present Hyde Park was largely redesigned in the 1820s under George IV, and in 1851 it was the site of the Great Exhibition, housed
in the Crystal Palace on the south side of the park. From the mid-19th century to the 20th century Hyde Park was often the site of political demonstrations and protests.

  Features: Apsley Gate; the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Gates; the statue of Achilles commemorating the Duke of Wellington; the Diana Princess of Wales

  Memorial Fountain; the 7th July 2005 Terrorists Attacks Memorial; the Reformers Tree Memorial; Speakers’

  Corner, where everyone is entitled to speak out on public issues; public boating on the Serpentine Lake; the park is one of two used for royal gun salutes.

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  Kensington Gardens

  Location: Central London, between Kensington and Hyde Park.

  Dimensions: 242 acres (98 hectares)

  History: William III and Mary II created the first gardens after they moved into Kensington Palace at the edge of Hyde Park. Queen Caroline of Ansbach then expanded

  the gardens in the 1730s by annexing 300 acres from Hyde Park and formally separating the two parks, making Kensington Gardens a private royal enclosure. Queen Caroline also added the Round Pond in front of

  Kensington Palace and the Broad Walk as the main path through the Gardens north to south. Very few changes were made in the following centuries so that the 18th century park remains in essence unchanged to this day.