To the west of the town lies Woburn Park, the demesne of Woburn Abbey,.
Land held in ancient demesne is sometimes also called customary freehold.
In 1087 the king held the manor of Wendover, and therefore it belonged to the ancient demesne of the crown.
But what the Third Crusade showed most clearly was that the crusading movement was being lost to the papacy, and becoming part of the demesne of the secular state - organized by the state on its own basis of taxation, and conducted by the state according to its own method of negotiation.
The other most notable open spaces wholly or partly within the county are Hampstead Heath in the north-west, a wild, high-lying tract preserved to a great extent in its natural state, and in the south-west Wimbledon Common, Putney Heath and the royal demesne of Richmond Park, which from its higher parts commands a wonderful view up the rich valley of the Thames.