The trust was officially founded in 1594 in order to ensure that the land in the Boxmoor area remained free for residents to use and enjoy.

[3] In 1574 Queen Elizabeth I gifted certain Hertfordshire lands to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, some of the grounds in question had once formed the estate of the Monastery of Ashridge.

Robert Dudley did not keep hold of the lands for very long as, on 11 May 1574 he sold them to Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford and Peter Graye of Segenhoe, Bedfordshire.

They had feared the common land would be enclosed and townspeople would be denied grazing rights: the price had been raised by secret public subscription.

[4] In 1594, ownership of the pastures was transferred to 67 local inhabitants (feoffes), "whereby their heirs and assigns might and should for ever thereafter have, hold and enjoy the said meadows and all the commodities that might or should arise thereof".

The highwayman Robert Snooks was hanged and buried at the scene of his crime on Boxmoor for the robbery of a postboy on the Sparrows Herne Turnpike which crossed the trust land.

The trustees placed a grave marker in 1904 at the approximate spot, and a subsequent footstone was added in 1994, as part of the trust's 400th anniversary.

Originally founded and overseen by feoffees, the Box Moor Trust was formally established by the Boxmoor Act 1809 (49 Geo.

The trustees hold and operate the grazing land on behalf of the beneficiaries, it having been legally transferred to them by the remaining inheritors of the original feoffees.

Although a rare occurrence, parcels of the trust estate have, over the years, been sold or compulsorily purchased, usually for a transport scheme.

Boxmoor Wharf played a key part in the continued existence of the trust due to the fact that it quickly became the transport hub of the town.

The wharf was then operated for nearly 40 years by L. Rose and Co who were one of the last companies to use the canals for carrying cargo, which, in this case, was mainly Lime Juice.

The trust runs monthly open days to celebrate the history of the watercress farm, as well as inform local residents of their plans for the site.

Roughdown Common, a former chalk quarry, was purchased by the trust in 1886 and is one of Hertfordshire's few remaining examples of unimproved calcareous grassland.

This ambition was realised in September 2019, when the Trust reintroduced 177 Water Voles in to the River Bulbourne as part of a three-year plan.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, the trust teamed with Puddingstone Distillery to release a gin made with Juniper harvested from Roughdown Common.