CHOBHAM COMMON NNR - Surrey Wildlife Trust

A detailed account of all the archaeological and historic features on the site can be
found in - An Archaeological and Historical Survey of Chobham Common proposed
Area of Historic Landscape Value (Currie C. 2002), copies of which are held by the
Surrey county archaeologists and the site ranger.
1.6.3. Land use history
It is believed that in common with other inland heaths Chobham Common was
created when early farmers cleared the primary woodland that once cloaked the
country. This exposed and degraded the fragile soils that underlie the site, creating
the conditions favoured by heathland. After the initial clearance the area would have
been kept free of trees by grazing and fuel gathering. There is evidence that the area
was occupied during the Neolithic period and the Bronze Age; analysis of peat cores
from areas with similar geology and patterns of settlement elsewhere in southern
Britain would suggest the heathland on Chobham Common was created at some
time during these periods.
Over 80% of the heathlands that once covered extensive areas of southern Britain
have been lost, with similar losses on the near continent where the remaining
lowland heathland of oceanic temperate regions occurs. This dramatic decline began
during the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century as changes in agriculture,
which resulted in the loss of grazing on heaths, and as the growing availability of
cheap coal as an alternative to other fuels, brought traditional heathland
management to an end in many areas. Large areas of heathland were lost to neglect
or subjected to agricultural “improvement” and enclosure as arable farming methods
advanced. During the Twentieth Century fifty percent of the heathland that remained
in 1919 was converted to commercial forestry and substantial areas have been lost
to development and invading scrub.
The survival of Chobham Common as an extensive area of lowland heath is largely
due to the historic isolation of the Chobham area where traditional heathland
management continued until the early Twentieth Century. While turbary (turf-cutting)
was still practised on a small scale at the beginning of the Twentieth Century it had
ceased to be an important factor in the management of the Common by that time.
Rough grazing and the cutting of heather, gorse and small trees began to decline
after 1914 and had almost completely ended by the time of the Second World War.
Photographic evidence and verbal reports indicate that during the early part of the
Twentieth Century large tracts of Calluna vulgaris with extensive areas of wet heath
and open bog dominated the Common. There was little scrub and the only trees of
any great size were at the Clump on Staple Hill and the Lone Pine to the south of the
Beegarden.
The Common was used by the military during the 1920’s and 1930’s, and throughout
the Second World War, when it was severely damaged by tanks. Immediately after
the Second World War the southern part of the Common was ploughed and seeded
with an annual grass to allow the natural vegetation to re-establish, while the area
north of Staple Hill, which was not as heavily damaged, was allowed to recover
naturally. By the 1950’s the Common was recovering well with large tracts of open
heath. At this time the Common was heavily rabbit grazed with little scrub and large
areas of close cropped heather and gorse. Myxomatosis reached the area in 1955
and consequently the heather and gorse on the Common grew on and scrub began
to develop. By the 1960’s scrub was starting to become a problem.
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