Berkhamsted Castle

To the north of Berkhamsted Castle lies farmland, a green patchwork of fields that extends up to the Ashridge Estate. Hundreds of years ago this area looked quite different – for around 400 years, this was a royal deer park. In the Middle Ages, royalty and wealthy nobility had the privilege to enclose land for their own private use. Around 1280, Richard, Earl of Cornwall siezed a large area of common land north of Berkhamsted Castle, and the area was emparked (officially designated as a new deer park). The park was a carefully managed landscape and was surrounded by a park pale, a sizeable fence to keep deer in and poachers out. A deer park was much more than a playground for the rich, it was a carefully managed sustainable resource providing timber, meat, fuel, and revenue to the royal household. For centuries, kings and nobles would hunt deer here, providing sport for royalty and venison for the Castle larders. The Berkhamsted Castle Deer Park was a significant part of the historic landscape for nearly 400 years.

Deer parks were a prominent feature of the British landscape until they were either broken up and converted into agricultural land or incorporated into post-medieval country estates. From the early 17th century, the Berkhamsted Deer Park was gradually disemparked, as land was given over bit by bit to agricultural use. Trees were felled and fields laid out, and today we see a patchwork of fields stretching up the hill towards Ashridge, all held by many different private landowners.

Although the Berkhamsted Deer Park has long been forgotten, its impact on the landscape is lasting. In fact, if we look at a modern satellite image of Berkhamsted, we can still see that the distinctive layout of the Deer Park has been preserved in the line of field boundaries to the north of the town:

A modern satellite image of Berkhamsted reveals the ancient boundaries of the Berkhamsted Deer park

Today, Berkhamsted Castle Trust is exploring ways of bringing out the story of the landscape, and celebrate the rich historic and cultural heritage of the ancient deer park linked to Berkhamsted Castle. There are potential opportunities to develop historic gateways along public footpaths, viewpoints, SANGs and wildlife habitats. You can learn more about these proposals on our Deer Park Project page.