CHOBHAM COMMON NNR - Surrey Wildlife Trust

The open heathland landscape attracts visitors to the site throughout the year. The
site is easily accessible by car and is accessible on foot from Chobham and
Sunningdale, 93% of visitors come by car and roughly 5% on horseback. Roughly
25% of visitors come from neighbouring villages and 63% come from within a fivemile
radius including the towns of Woking, Addlestone, Chertsey, Bagshot and
Camberley, with most of the remainder coming from other parts of Surrey and
Berkshire, and from south-west London. Visitors with an interest in natural history
often come from further afield the site attracts ornithologists for the heathland birds
(particularly Dartford warbler and nightjar), entomologists, and botanists as well as
amateur photographers and astronomers.
There is an excellent network of public bridleways, public footpaths, horse rides and
informal tracks, which most visitors stick to. The steep slopes on the site make
access for visitors with limited mobility difficult. Deep heather, Molinia tussocks,
hidden trip hazards and boggy ground can make going off track hazardous.
Many visitors come to the Common, as it is a convenient place to walk their dog, and
have little appreciation of the sensitivity of the site; consequently there are problems
with dog fouling in and around the car parking areas, and serious concerns regarding
the disturbance of ground nesting birds by dogs. While education and the
enforcement of relevant byelaws have served to reduce these problems, the
provision of dog bins and alternative sites for dog walking in the area are both being
considered at the time of writing. The provision of a good quality track network and
restricting off-road cyclists to public bridleways, have ensured that erosion is no
longer a serious problem on site and have served to reduce disturbance to wildlife,
however it is essential that this network is maintained in good condition in order to
ensure this remains the case. The over collection of edible fungi has been a concern
in recent years and in order to reduce it’s impact a one kilo limit per visitor has been
imposed, together with interpretive signs in English, Polish and Italian.
1.7.2. Access provision
With the exception of Broomhall Heath, West Wood, Valley Wood, the land east of
Burma Road, Chobham Place Fields, the Barrow Woods and Gracious Pond, the
whole site is Access land under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act and is
covered by a Deed of Access under the Law of Property Act 1925. There is informal
access on Broomhall Heath, West Wood, Valley Wood and the Barrow Woods.
Chobham Place Fields will be made accessible to the public once Surrey County
Council receives the exchange land certificate formalising its ownership of the fields.
There are three self-guided trails on the Common together with a short easy access
trail around Roundabout Car Park.
There is an extensive rights of way network with links to neighbouring Access land at
Chobham Place Woods, Round Pond Woods and Stanner’s Hills and west of
Chobham Road, and to Chobham, Sunningdale, Horsell Common and Woking.
There are hourly buses from Woking to Chobham, which stop at Bowling Green
Road just south of the Common, during the day, and regular daytime bus services to
Sunningdale from Ascot, Windsor, Camberley and Staines, from Monday to
Saturday. There are no bus services to Chobham or Sunningdale on Sundays, bank
holidays or during the evening.
Sunningdale Railway Station, which is 600 metres from the north-west corner of the
Common, is well served by trains, including weekend, bank holiday and evening
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