Environment and roads

Origins and development of the Estate

One hundred years ago in June 1908 the County Council successfully bid at auction to buy its first holding, the 59 acre Appleby Street Farm at Cheshunt. This was the start of what was to become a series of major purchases of rural land across Hertfordshire as part of the council’s former statutory duties to provide land for letting; to protect the environment and prevent the outward sprawl of London. Today the County Council controls over 10,380 acres of rural land and it is one of the largest landowners in Hertfordshire. The purpose for holding the estate has changed radically over the course of 100 years and today it is held primarily for environmental and financial reasons and managed as a commercial estate.

The pre-1st World War initiative

The Smallholdings & Allotments Act 1908, passed under Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, placed a duty on councils across England and Wales to buy and lease land for letting as ‘smallholdings’. Public meetings were held across Hertfordshire to assess demand and adverts were placed ‘in simple language seeking applications from men who desire land to rent’. There was an overwhelming response and the county actively set up a committee to secure land to meet demand. This mainly offered opportunities for renting individual fields and small farmsteads as well as letting more conventional allotments as we know them today. The provision of smaller allotments was mainly pursued by the parish and town councils with the larger lettings being offered by the County Council.

This early phase of providing smallholdings was not about supporting farming, which remained in a depressed almost moribund state in the 1900s, due to low commodity prices and reliance on imported produce from the British Empire, but was a key social policy advocated by the then Liberal government. Smallholdings and allotments were to be made available for rent to what was then a relatively impoverished rural labouring population. This was perceived as a means of offering opportunities to improve individuals’ sense of self worth and independence and also help stem rural de-population and the tide of emigration to Canada and Australia. This policy had an ideological background in Liberal Land Reform campaigns from the 1880s and early proposals for land nationalisation.

During the first part of the 20th century the provision of smallholdings was a high profile function for the authority. The county’s economy at this period was still dominated by its agriculture and rural industry. Many county councillors were farmers and large scale landowners in their own right and were influential in making rapid progress and proudly developing the estate.

From 1908 Herts County Council quickly set about acquiring land by lease or outright purchase, indeed the first approach to the committee for land came from the Potten End Smallholdings Association, a group of 13 local men anxious to rent land for themselves. The estate developed rapidly to keep pace with demand with land being acquired all over the county as far apart as Wilstone and Puttenham in the west, to Cheshunt and Hertford Heath in the east; from Hinxworth and Kelshall in north Herts and to Croxley Green and Chorleywood in the south west. By 1919 the county had either bought or leased 6,435 acres and let 161 smallholdings. In many instances land was acquired from traditional landed estates including those of the Marquess of Salisbury, the Abel-Smith family, Earl Spencer, Lord Brownlow, Lord Rothschild and Lord Ebury. Many of these owners actively supported the smallholdings movement offering land to the County Council for sale or rent. In 1919 the committee wished to place on record ‘the most patriotic and generous manner’ that Lord Rothschild adopted in offering a farm at Tring for the county to buy, presumably at a discounted price. Lord Brownlow offered rent abatements.

Post 1st World War investment

Following the end of the First World War in 1919 the government required County Councils to offer smallholdings to returning servicemen; part of the ‘homes for heroes’ movement under the Land Settlement Act. Again this was a key social policy to reward servicemen and by 1920, 619 applications were received from ex-servicemen for smallholdings in Hertfordshire. Further major purchases were made at Baldock, Kings Langley and Tring and the provision of land to let continued.

At Baldock a complete re-organisation of the landscape took place clearing away one of the last remaining ancient strip field systems with commoners rights in the county. Legislation had provided an option for county councils to establish ‘smallholding colonies’, groups of smallholders who farmed cooperatively and shared the use of equipment, horses and labour. Such a ‘colony’ was proposed on the re-arranged Baldock estate, to be directly funded by the council but this did not succeed. A number of much smaller scale ‘cooperatives’ were established to rent land at Bushey, Wilkins Green and Kings Langley.

Before the First World War the county was already providing brand new cottages on its land at Potten End and Hinxworth, but it was in the early 1920s that major investment in providing model houses and farmsteads began, in effect creating ‘small farms’ for rent. On the Rural Estate major building projects were underway at Baldock, Ickleford and Kings Langley leading to a traditional style of rendered or black weather boarded cottages with outbuildings. Smaller scale farm house building, again to standard designs, took place at Tring, Stanborough, Ashwell, Roestock and Sandridge.

Prior to 1920 the estate was organised through a series of divisional committees based in St Albans, Watford, Hitchin and Hertford. All land management was carried out for these divisions by local firms of land agents. From 1920, however, the authority established its own ‘in house’ Land Agents department, to deal with smallholdings, but soon it assumed responsibility for all the county’s land acquisitions and property management including for schools, libraries and roads etc.

Until 1926 central Government retained tight control over the smallholdings movement approving all schemes and the design of new buildings. The government, however, bore the full cost of all purchases and all council running costs. This changed in 1926 when councils were given much greater operational control but with less central funding. There was a shift in emphasis towards letting land to those who already had experience of farming and encouraging employment opportunities for farm workers who wished to better themselves.


From 1931 emphasis was placed on letting holdings to the unemployed and offering subsidies to those in need, but following the Agriculture Act of 1947 the policy changed to promoting lettings to experienced farm workers, who wanted to farm on their own account and this led to a steady rationalisation of existing lettings. By 1939 the Estate stabilised at around 6,250 acres with 236 holdings. As leases ended, particularly those of small units in comparatively remote locations, like at Haultwick or Puttenham, over 1,500 acres altogether was gradually handed back to the original owners.

As the state of British agriculture improved in the 1950/60s there was major capital investment by the County Council on its freehold properties and many new standard houses and farmsteads were built, especially on the smaller scale family run dairy farms. New amalgamated holdings were established in this period on land at Kings Langley, Tring, Roestock, Chiswell Green, Holwell, Pirton and Chapmore End. Many old farmhouses were demolished or sold off.

The Agriculture Act 1970 imposed a review and a rationalisation of council smallholdings began and this prompted a tiered ladder approach to form viable full time holdings.

The Green Belt Act initiatives

In parallel to smallholdings land purchases the County Council actively pursued polices under the new Hertfordshire County Council Act 1935 and the Green Belt (London & Home Counties) Act 1938. The new Green Belt Act led to many local authorities, including the County Council, buying up large estates around the periphery of towns bordering London. The policy was part of the green belt movement intended to protect and control development and the outward spread of the metropolis by owning land. In Hertfordshire over 4,000 acres was bought roughly mirroring the present route of the M25. Unlike the county’s smallholdings these landholdings often included much larger farms with existing secure tenant farmers and a wide variety of property types. The county bought substantial landholdings in this way at Shenley, Ridge, Langleybury and Bushey. The County also joined with other local authorities and helped them buy Moor Park and Chorleywood Estates near Watford and the Theobalds Estate at Cheshunt. The County Council also purchased a number of villages greens, for instance at Tewin and Burnham Green, as an early measure to protect them from development.

The most unusual Herts County Council purchase occurred in 1946 when it bought almost the entire village of Aldenham as part of the 1,000 acre Wall Hall Estate. The American millionaire, shipping and railway magnate, John Pierpont Morgan was anxious that on his death the estate should pass in tact into public ownership for its preservation for future generations. Much of the residential property has since been sold but this estate remains one of the key property interests on the Rural Estate.

In 1986 the Greater London Council (GLC) was abolished and its own extensive rural property interests in Hertfordshire passed into the control of the Rural Estate. In most cases this actually re-united previously broken up estates for instance at Dyrham Park, Barnet and Napsbury, near St Albans. Adjustments to the London Borough boundaries of Barnet and Enfield led to additional farm and woodland at Elstree and Potters Bar, previously owned by these boroughs, being transferred to the Rural Estate in the mid 1990s.

The 21st century

Since 1970 each county council has been free to develop their own polices for farms and smallholdings. The purpose of owning farms is now quite different and many councils have either had one off sales or have waited until tenancies end before selling. Because of its high urban population and proximity to London, Hertfordshire has over the years taken a slightly different line and has developed its estate along intertwined commercial and environmental lines. From the 1960s there have been selective sales of older, often high liability properties, holdings have steadily been merged into larger units with surplus houses and buildings being sold, but with the land generally being retained. The Estate income base has been broadened by lettings and leases to a wide variety of rural commercial tenants.

The Estate since 1989 has been managed by a small team of staff within the Environment Department.