You are invited to our picnic celebrating 25 years of protecting our green spaces on Bernards Heath, Beech Bottom Dyke, and Sandridge Road. Bring your own picnic, or order a picnic selection in advance from the Little Star Cafe*. Event runs from 12 – 2pm.
Come along with family and friends to enjoy an alcohol-free picnic in front of the new playground. There will be face painting and craft activities for the kids, and visits from our local Wilderhood Watch.
Please note that this event is alcohol-free, and there are no toilet facilities on site.
*Order a picnic selection in store at the Little Star Cafe by Sunday the 5th of May, and collect from 11:30am on the day.
The Friends are happy to take questions about, and report incidents regarding, the heath, dyke and wastes to the council. Residents can now also report incidents directly to the council when logged ino the their account on the SADC website.
FoBH chair, David Pearce, noted that this is a useful tool as “local can check to see whether the incident has already been reported by someone else or to obtain an update”.
Our Tree Warden, Roger Miles, has spotted that this tree, one of the largest on the Upper Field, has suffered a large crack in its trunk. A branch has now fallen as shown below.
It is a Norway Maple, about half way along the tarmaced path.
The photos below show the original crack, several feet long. It is dangerous to go near the tree which has now been red/white taped off .
The break in the tree, seen from both sides, is shown below.
Two other trees on the Heath, a beech and a cherry have recently lost heavy branches, but in these cases the cause was rot in the in the point where the branch met the main trunk.
The dangerous nature of this tree has been brought to the attention of SADC and now only the stump remains. It was necessary to remove the remaining branch because of its hazardous state,
In the 1930s, St Albans Council erected a combined bus shelter and public toilets in the south corner of Heath Field. Sometime in the early 1980s, the building was demolished, leaving some laurel bushes which were common landscaping accompaniments to such facilities.
The cherry blossom on the Heath and Sandridge Road Wastes is really beautiful this year – Photo: MN
We have now been in ‘Lockdown’ since March 23rd and since then the Heath has been very much busier than normal. Sunny weather has encouraged walkers, joggers and cyclists (often with children) to take advantage of what the Heath offers – it’s just like a weekend every day. The recently installed interpretation boards are also getting attention. The bluebells in Beech Bottom Dyke are also worth seeing, especially at the end near the railway.
While it’s good to see the Heath playing its part in providing a distraction from worries about Covid 19 and its consequences, it’s also apparent that there is less careless litter than might be expected for high summer. O’Conner the maintenance contractors have generally done a good job in clearing bins and cutting grass. Sadly, John O’Conner, the founder of the company, died in March partly as a consequence of Covid 19 infection.
Many people will have noticed that new boards have appeared describing the Heath and Sandridge Road Wastes. The old Bernards Heath boards have been updated and smart new metal frames used instead of wood frames which rotted out. These are formally described as interpretation boards, and they provide a concise account of historical events and industries which once existed on the Heath. Click here for a larger version of the Bernards Heath interpretation boards.
Three boards describe Bernards Heath and three Sandridge Road Wastes (the latter being green areas alongside Sandridge Road). Beech Bottom Dyke is a huge ditch 1 mile long partially hidden behind trees alongside Beech Road and Firbank Road 7 – 10. The map below shows where boards are located.
Boards 1-3 Bernards Heath, 4-6 Sandridge Road Wastes and 7-10 Beech Bottom Dyke. board 8, is close to the bank of the ditch and approached by a narrow cut though between the houses. Photo: Google maps
Click here for a larger version of Sandridge Road Wastes. There is a small notice board alongside board 6 which is dated 1955 pointing out that parking is not allowed on the Wastes.
Beech Bottom Dyke has four interpretation boards (7-10). The Friends of Bernards Heath have done much (see here , here and here) to make paths alongside and at the bottom of the ditch more accessible.
Many thanks to members of the Friends of Bernards Heath, especially RM and PB for their work on the preparation of artwork and content. The Friends of Bernards Heath paid for the artwork and the St Albans City Council the metal boards and their installation.
