Ashtead Common, nearly 495 acres (c. 200 ha), is a wooded area open to the public, to the north of the village of

Ashtead Ashtead is a village in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, approximately south of central London. Ashtead is on the single-carriageway A24 road (Great Britain), A24 between Epsom and Leatherhead. The village is on the northern sl ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

, England. It is owned and managed by the

City of London Corporation The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the local authority of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United Kingdom's f ...

, after being bought by the City due to concern in the 1870s that access to the open countryside around London was being threatened. 180.5 ha of the common is a National Nature Reserve. Together with

Epsom Common Epsom Common is a Local Nature Reserve in Epsom, Surrey, England. It is owned and managed by Epsom and Ewell Borough Council. It is part of Epsom and Ashtead Commons, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. This is a nationally important wil ...

it forms part of a larger area of open countryside called Epsom and Ashtead Commons, which is designated a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

(SSSI).

Background

Ashtead Common Nature Reserve Information board

Ashtead Common has been part of the Epsom and Ashtead Commons SSSI since 1955 due to its community of breeding birds. It has also been a National Nature Reserve since 1995 because of the wood of decaying ancient trees and the rare invertebrates that live in it. It contains a wooded common with over 2,300 pollarded oaks, between 300 and 400 years old. These provide a habitat for many rare and endangered deadwood species. The area is of conservation interest in Britain and Europe. Also within the common are bracken, scrub grassland, semi-improved neutral grassland and various aquatic habitats. Trials have been undertaken on how to deal with the invasion of Michaelmas daisies. It was concluded that grazing by goats was the most successful management option. There are remains of a

Roman villa A Roman villa was typically a farmhouse or country house in the territory of the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire, sometimes reaching extravagant proportions. Nevertheless, the term "Roman villa" generally covers buildings with the common ...

and tile works on the common. These are scheduled ancient monuments. There are also some earthworks. When the Southern Railway planned to build a new line to connect Chessington South railway station with Leatherhead railway station in the 1930s, work was delayed by the outbreak of the Second World War, and afterwards the introduction of the "

Green Belt A green belt or greenbelt is a policy, and land-use zone designation used in land-use planning to retain areas of largely undeveloped, wilderness, wild, or agricultural landscape, land surrounding or neighboring urban areas. Similar concepts ...

" stopped development of the area. Part of the land reserved for the railway to the south of Ashtead Wood was subsequently used for the construction of the

M25 motorway The M25 or London Orbital Motorway is a major ring road encircling most of Greater London. The motorway is one of the most important roads in the UK and one of the busiest. Margaret Thatcher opened the final section in 1986, making the M25 th ...

Access

Ashtead Common, together with Epsom Common, extends from the M25 Junction 9 near

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon ...

to the outskirts of

Epsom Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...

. There are many entrances to the common for walkers, including in north

and

. The

Thames Down Link The Thames Down Link is a official walking route linking the Thames Path and the North Downs Way. It starts in the town centre of Kingston upon Thames and finishes at Box Hill & Westhumble railway station. Name The path is so called as it conn ...

long distance footpath, from

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames, colloquially known as Kingston, is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, England. It is situated on the River Thames, south-west of Charing Cross. It is an ancient market town, notable as ...

to Box Hill and Westhumble station, cuts across the western half of the common.

References

External links

MapAshtead Common pages
on the City of London Corporation website {{coord, 51.323, -0.320, type:landmark_region:GB-SRY, display=title Parks and open spaces of the City of London Corporation Parks and open spaces in Surrey Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Surrey