Chobham Common

Chobham Common is a 655.7-hectare (1,620-acre) biological

• 26 species of mammal have been recorded on the site including the nationally rare water vole.
• 116 species of bird have been recorded. The Common is a nationally important breeding area for European nightjar, woodlark and Dartford warbler.
• 9 species of reptiles and amphibians have been recorded, including adders and the nationally rare sand lizard.
• The Common is nationally important for its invertebrate fauna being the best site in the UK for
  ladybirds – it is one of the last two sites on the mainland UK for the red barbed ant Formica rufibarbis
  .
• 23 species of dragonfly
• 33 species of
  silver studded blue
  have been recorded.

Plants

• 390 species of vascular plant
• A good assemblages of
  fungi
  have been recorded.
  • Of most note are the marsh club moss (Lycopodiella inundata) and Deptford pink (Dianthus armeria)
• A good assemblages of wetland species including sundews (Drosera) and marsh gentian (Gentiana pneumonanthe), and of heathland road verge species.

History

An Inclosure Award was made by Parliament in 1855 of part to the Earl of Onslow outright, the rest, for example, in 1911 comprising "several thousand acres of common land" was uninclosed but associated with his land, at which time Chobham remained a large parish (i.e. village or town) in southern England, covering 9,057 acres (3,665 ha).^[13]

In addition to the Great Camp of 1853, the Common also hosted the Battle of Chobham Common in September 1871, as part of the Autumn Manoeuvres of that year.^[14] During the First World War, trenching exercises were held in August 1915 in advance of Kitchener's Third Army's mobilisation in France.^[14]

Chobham Common was used by the military during the 1920s and 1930s, and throughout the

• There are three scheduled monuments on Chobham Common: a Bronze Age barrow, and two earthworks of unknown date and origin known as "The Beegardens".
• Queen Victoria reviewed troops encamped on the Common, including the Light Brigade (famous from the "Charge of the Light Brigade"), before their departure to the Crimea during the Crimean War in 1853. The Victoria Monument erected on the site in 1901 commemorates this review.

Loss of heathlands nationally

Over 80% of the

In 1984, Surrey County Council produced the first management plan for Chobham Common which acknowledged invading scrub, fire and erosion as the main threats to the site. The Surrey Trust for Nature Conservation (now renamed the Surrey Wildlife Trust) had carried out small-scale scrub clearance work from 1974 onwards and Surrey County Council began clearing scrub on the Common from the 1970s onwards; however despite their best efforts the scrub continued to advance. While describing birch and pine invasion on the Common as “Possibly the most serious problem for nature conservation” the 1984 Management Plan states, “Widespread invasion control is difficult to justify financially. Intervention management will therefore be limited to the more significant open habitats and places where an acceptable level of tree cover can be maintained at low cost”.

From the late 1980s, a more aggressive approach to scrub management was adopted together with more active conservation management starting with the large scale annual events for schools and volunteers such as “Purge the Pine” and “Free Christmas Tree” events. While these events, which involved over 1,500 volunteers in some years, dramatically reduced the threat to the Common from pine invasion, birch remained a major threat to the site.

The 1992 Management Plan took a much more positive approach to

Strong summer heat can occur to dry out the long grass, shrubs and trees of acidic heath soil. When a fire breaks out, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service (in the case of the major May 2010 fire attracting rubbernecking, Surrey Police and Hampshire Fire and Rescue assisted) extinguish it in a range of vehicles and teams.

In August 2020, a fire on the common spread to the golf course at the Wentworth Club causing the abandonment of the final event of the Rose Ladies Series.^[17][18]

Erosion mitigation

The first

It is also reported that during the 1950s and 1960s visitors regularly took vehicles onto Chobham Common further adding to the problem. An aerial photograph dated 1964 clearly shows severe erosion problems on Tank Hill and Staple Hill. By the time Surrey County Council acquired Chobham Common in 1968 there were nine car parks on the area covered by this plan. Initially the Council wished to develop a country park but these plans were soon dropped in favour of informal recreation and nature conservation.

In 1992, a consultative process began to resolve long running conflicts of interest between horse riders and other users, and to rationalise the

• Longcross railway station

Very limited service at this station. Alternatives are Virginia Water and Sunningdale.

Access

Chobham Common is open to the public, has six

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chobham Common.

External links

• Chobham Common (Surrey Wildlife Trust)
• Chobham Common NNR (Natural England)
• Chobham Common NNR Draft Management Plan 2007 – 2012
• Chobham Common report on public consultations and recommendations for future management
• Article on DSTL/QinetiQ Chertsey and Longcross Test Track (Chobham Tank Research Centre)
• Man's influence on Chobham Common, June 2015
• Chobham Common SSSI citation, Natural England

51°22′23″N 0°36′14″W / 51.373°N 0.604°W / 51.373; -0.604