Maps & Walks – Friends of Bernards Heath

There are several suggested walks connecting with Bernards Heath, including the St Albans Green Ring.

Bernards Heath – showing boundaries and the location of the Ariston site.

A link to a site map from Herts County Council can be found here.

Hare Map 1634

The image below shows the northeast part of the Hare map of 1634 – the oldest to show a fragment of Bernards Heath, shaded in pale green. At that time it was called Barnett Heath with the town gallows pictured on the top right corner of the map. The map also shows that Barnett Heath was outside the boundary of the borough of St Albans (heavy black line).

Northeast section of the Hare map of 1634. Bold black lines indicate the St Albans boundary.
The latter boundary is now in a different position.

1883 Ordnance Survey map

Part of the 1883 OS Map showing the Eastern side of the Heath, with the Midland Railway line passing over Beach Bottom Dyke. The scale was 6″ to one mile, but will be different on your screen.

1898 Ordnance Survey map 1

Northern extent of the 1898 OS map. There was no Beech Road at that time

1898 Ordnance Survey map 2

The Heath in detail and sections around the Ancient Briton junction and the Stonecross area are shown below:

Bernards Heath around the Stonecross area

1843 Tithe map

A vector redrawn part of the 1843 Sandridge Parish Tithe map showing properties adjacent to Bernard Heath (sic).The original map is held at the HALS library in Hertford.

Tithe Apportionments* for the map above

				T	A*	R	P	£	s	d
534	Earl Spencer	Robert Smith	Hither Upper Jennings	A	11	1	35		13	5
539	..	..	Sandpit Field	A	10	3	9		17	8
540	..	..	Seven and Eight Acres	A	17	1	2	1	0	6
541	..	..	GallowsField	A	12	1	24		16	6
542	..	..	Cutbert Mead	G	9	0	2		13	5
543	..	..	Close Adjoining Windmill Farm	G	3	0	27		10	3
544	..	..	A Close	G	1	3	23		6	1
545	John Oakes	owner	Waterworks House and garden	–		2	7		2	0
546	George Alfred Muskett	Robert Weetley	House and garden	–	1	1	22
547	Earl Spencer	Robert Smith	Farmhouse buildings garden and orchard	–	4	1	22		7	0
548	Thomas Burningham	Widow Brown	Harvey Close	G	3	0	0		4	4
549	Charles Forman Gape	John Field	Little Meadow on Bernard Heath	G	2	3	29
550	Thomas Burningham	Widow Brown	Four Acres	A	4	2	25
551	..	..	Ten Acres	A	9	1	21
552	..	..	Brick Close	A	3	1	33
554	..	..	Twelve Acres	A	13	0	5
556	..	..	Twelve Acres	A	13	1	23
557	..	..	Nine Acres	A	10	1	23
558	..	..	Dead Womans Hill	A	3	3	35
560	Earl Spencer	Robert Smith	Bottom Close and Ten Acres	A	15	0	7		17	5

*Areas are in acres, rods and perches, A, R, P, where 1 acre = 4 rods = 160 perches and 1 acre = 4840 square yards. Column T denotes type of land, A = arable, G = grass.
Not all payments to the vicar are listed.

2010 OS Explorer map of St Albans and Hatfield at a 1:25,00 scale shows Bernards Heath, but not in much detail.