Weybridge Heath is a part of

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge, Elmbridge district in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a cro ...

common Common may refer to: As an Irish surname, it is anglicised from Irish Gaelic surname Ó Comáin. Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Com ...

, in

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...

. The Heath comprises of lowland

heathland A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

that runs from the deep cutting of the

South West Main Line The South West Main Line (SWML) is a 143-mile (230 km) major railway line between Waterloo station in central London and Weymouth on the south coast of England. A predominantly passenger line, it serves many commuter areas including south wes ...

railway eastwards to Cobbetts Hill. To the west of the railway line, much of the original heathland is now occupied by Heathside School and Brooklands College. During the 1970s and 1980s the heathland fell into a poor state of repair because the surrounding brush was ill-maintained and

coppicing Coppicing is the traditional method in woodland management of cutting down a tree to a tree stump, stump, which in many species encourages new Shoot (botany), shoots to grow from the stump or roots, thus ultimately regrowing the tree. A forest ...

, which is essential for the maintenance of small heaths, had ceased. Gradually, the area became more and more overgrown with newly grown brush composed of the saplings of deciduous trees, and became to resemble more of a young wood. Because the area used to contain many species of

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

s, rare

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

and insectivorous plants, Surrey County Council embarked in 1989 upon a project to renew the heathland and encourage the return of the area to its original habitat type. The project consisted of the removal of many taller trees from a central portion of the site, and the clearing of brush from this area. The council hoped that the area would be returned to something approaching its former glory within a decade. Evidence of the re-growth of heathland is not great as of 2003, and some local residents are sceptical about the apparent defacement of the area, dubbing the cleared area "the bomb site". It was on the original heath in this location that

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

myrmecologist

Horace Donisthorpe Horace St. John Kelly Donisthorpe (17 March 1870 – 22 April 1951) was an eccentric British myrmecologist and coleopterist, memorable in part for his enthusiastic championing of the renaming of the genus '' Lasius'' after him as ''Donisthorp ...

collected many of the ants from which he produced so many observations and deductions.

References

The Common Lands of Surrey
{{Elmbridge Geography of Surrey