You can read a copy of the complete document here which is slightly blurred. A recent clear copy is available here.
1915 Management Agreement Commentary
The document here is the “Management Agreement” drawn up by the then St Albans Corporation in 1915 to set out its powers to manage Bernards Heath. The provisions in the agreement have been turned into local by-laws.
The freehold of the Heath was (and still is) owned by the Spencer Estate, but they withdrew from almost all aspects of control over the land to make this agreement possible. It is not explicit in the document, but the agreement is also between the Corporation and the few remaining local residents with grazing rights on the Heath. One of its purposes was to extinguish those rights to make way for the unhindered recreational use of the area we enjoy today.
The Heath had been owned by the Abbey until 1539, and some of the provisions in the agreement may have been carried forward from when the Abbey ran the Heath as a game reserve. Such provisions include having to dismount from your horse and walk it across the Heath (I hope you do all still do that), not training hunting dogs there, and leaving birds’ nests strictly undisturbed – and this at a time when egg collecting was regarded as positively virtuous.
It is both an important current legal document and a fascinating historical record.
PB