Local historian, Peter Burley, has recently published an account of ‘Battlefields as Assets of Community Value (ACVs)’ in the Battlefield Magazine. You may well ask what is an ACV? , well the answer to this appears in the article, a copy of which is shown below with particular reference to the second Battle of St Albans, 1461 on Bernards Heath.
The text is not easy to read in the copy below, so this is reproduced in the pdf document here. The copy depicts a scene from the Battle, painted by Graham Turner.
The Friends of Bernards Heath (FoBH) exists for the interests of two of the three pieces of registered common land which lie within St Albans’ city boundaries; Bernards Heath and Sandridge Road Wastes.
Sandpit Lane Wastes are not included. Note that Beech Bottom Dyke, another Friends concern, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM), but not common land and is owned by St Albans District Council (SACDC).
This is the earliest picture of the Heath that we know of that dates from the early 19th century.
The picture comes from a document entitled ‘Our own country’ and is published by Cassell and Co. Ltd. It was digitised by the the University of California. No author is mentioned.
It has been suggested that the view is looking north towards Sandridgebury and another suggestion is that the building in the distance is more likely to be St Leonard’s Church, Sandridge.
It is interesting that most of the pictures in the document mentioned above are easily relatable to local buildings or scenery, including those in St Albans, but this view could have been related to many locations, perhaps even including the artist’s mind.
Update 14th June 2023
A chance meeting by Peter Burley with a former resident of Sandbridgebury House has confirmed that the building in the picture is indeed her former home. What better provenance – thank you Peter.
The picture is currently exhibited in St Albans Museum + Gallery.
