Category: Ariston Site

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Autumn Action Day 2017

Well done, and thank you, to everyone who helped with our action day on Sunday, 19th November. 

Litter and dumping of various items is a constant problem on the Heath, particularly around seating areas and on the sides of Harpenden Road.  We do our best to keep it clear and keep the Heath a welcoming area for public use.

Action days are not restricted to litter picking, and some of us worked on cleaning out the old water tank close to the old Judo Club.The tank was constructed during WW2 for a supply of water in the event of fire, but has since become a container for rubbish and leaves.  We made a start on cleaning it out last November and this was the second attempt.

A determined effort revealed that much more rubbish, especially rubble, had been dumped than realised, probably to a depth of nearly 10 inches (25 cm) in one area. More work is needed.

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The Lower Heath – what’s happening now?

We were very grateful to everyone who contacted the press and their local Councillors when we got the shock news, only a week ahead of the Cabinet Panel meeting on 9 December, that Hertfordshire County Council (“HCC”) was going back on its previous decision in 2014 to support discussions with the District Council to transfer the Lower Heath to them.

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Sinkhole Tours

Last October the country thrilled to the drama of the sinkhole on Bernards Heath – and the story is not finished yet.

Much was written and said in the media, but there is nothing like being on the spot to hear an explanation of the factors which came together to ‘make the earth move’.

Over the summer, Roger Miles, member of FoBH Committee, longtime resident of the Heath, amateur archaeologist and local historian, will be leading small group tours of the Heath on the theme of the sinkhole.

Geology, industrial archaeology, local history and even literature all figure in the story, but there will be nothing ‘difficult’ to understand.

If you would like to join one of the tour groups, which can be on a weekday, weekend or evening – state preference – let us know, plus how many you would be. You will be notified when a tour is planned.

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Ariston site – Heathlands Drive work

If you have walked along Heathlands Drive recently, you will probably have noticed clearance work near the Judo Club building.  Following on from work on the Lower Field, ground checks are being made on this area and the possibilility of having to divert the road.

Ground clearance at the end of the Judo Club building

Chris Parkes FRICS, director of Lambert Smith Hampton, informs us that:

‘Survey work is required to check out some gravitational anomalies that have been found in the vicinity of the entrance to Heathlands School.

Microgravity investigation in the road at the front of the Pioneer Club

There are 2 elements to the work:

1.       Thursday 11  February and Monday 15 February- clearance and microgravity survey of an alternative route to the school behind the Judo Club (to allow for the unlikely event that the other survey work causes concern over ground stability of the existing access road). The clearance work is being carried out with a JCB, so there will be some noise.

2.       Tuesday 16 and Wednesday 17 February drilling in the access road outside the school gates to check on subsoil conditions. Depending on what that reveals, further intrusive survey works may be required.

The current intention is that the access road will be narrowed whilst the works are carried out, but will ‘remain in use’.

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Ariston Site and Lower Field Update

These gateposts are one of the few reminders of the Ariston tallow works on the Heath, a site that has been under consideration for residential development for some time.

In January 2013 Hertfordshire County Council, HCC, announced its decision to sell the former Ariston site, including the Lower Field of Bernards Heath. HCC subsequently decided to offer the site for sale with planning permission in place for residential development and the relocation of existing community uses. Following discussions between HCC and St Albans District Council, SADC, a public exhibition of the planning proposals was held in December 2013 and January 2014. 

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