Esher Commons

Esher Commons comprises several large wooded areas to the South West of Esher in the English county of Surrey. The designation includes Esher Common, Fairmile Common, West End Common and Oxshott Heath.

Geology and terrain

The geology of the Commons consists of the damp clay soils of the Claygate Beds and acidic soils of the Bagshot Beds and Plateau Gravels with peat on top. The terrain is lowland heath, predominantly covered by woodland, including both deciduous and coniferous trees, notably: oak; beech; silver birch; birch; and Scots Pine in various stages of maturity. There is also grassland, and areas of marsh, bog and open water which provide a rich variety of habitats to support many species of plant and animal life.

The Common was not always wooded, and much of the area was formerly open heathland used as common grazing land. It had not been grazed for many years and much of the area is now secondary woodland, including conifer plantations from the 1950s. Grazing trials began on a small area of Esher Commons in 2015. In the first year 15 goats were introduced to a 2.5ha area of heath for a period of six months. Esher Commons Site of Special Scientific Interest covers a large part of Arbrook, Esher, Oxshott, West End and Fairmile Commons and the Ledges. Arbrook Common is the easternmost, named after the Arbrook, at other points and sources known as the 'Rythe'. Otherwise much of the remainder of the commons is a subterranean aquifer. A programme to fell tracts of secondary woodland has led to various public protests. In spite of the SSSI designation, the A3 Esher bypass was built through the middle of Esher Common in 1974. As compensation, approximately 90 acres (360,000 m²) of "exchange land" became part of the Commons. The Ledges were added to West End Common, and an area including Middle Pond became part of Esher Common.

Esher

Coordinates: 51°22′09″N 0°21′54″W / 51.3691°N 0.365°W / 51.3691; -0.365

Esher ⁱ/ˈiːʃər/ is a town in Surrey, England, to the east of the River Mole.

Esher is an outlying suburb of London, and with Esher Commons at its southern end, the town marks one limit of the Greater London Built-Up Area. Esher has a linear commercial high street and is otherwise suburban in density, with varying elevations, few high rise buildings and very short sections of dual carriageway within the ward itself. Esher covers a large area, between 13 and 15.4 miles southwest of Charing Cross. In the south it is bounded by the A3 Portsmouth Road which is of urban motorway standard and buffered by the Esher Commons.

Esher is bisected by the A307, historically the Portsmouth Road, which for approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) forms its high street. Esher railway station (served by the South West Main Line) connects the town to London Waterloo. Sandown Park Racecourse is in the town near the station.

In the south, Claremont Landscape Garden owned and managed by the National Trust, once belonged, as their British home, to Princess Charlotte and her husband Leopold I of Belgium. Accordingly, the town was selected to have a fountain by Queen Victoria and has an adjacent Diamond Jubilee column embossed with a relief of the monarch and topped by a statue of Britannia. Unite, the union, trains representatives at its Esher Place centre, and the town has the offices of Elmbridge Borough Council in its high street.

Esher (disambiguation)

Esher is a town in Surrey, England. It can also mean:

Esher (UK Parliament constituency)

Esher was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. In the general elections during its 47-year lifetime it was won by three Conservatives successively.

History and boundaries

1950-1974: The Urban Districts of Esher (the civil parishes of Cobham, East Molesey, Esher, Long Ditton, Stoke D'Abernon, Thames Ditton, and West Molesey) and Walton and Weybridge (the civil parishes of Walton-upon-Thames and Weybridge).

1974-1983: The Urban District of Esher.

1983-1997: The Borough of Elmbridge wards of Claygate, Cobham and Downside, Cobham Fairmile, Esher, Hinchley Wood, Long Ditton, Molesey East, Molesey North, Molesey South, Oxshott and Stoke D'Abernon, Thames Ditton, and Weston Green, and the Borough of Guildford wards of Clandon and Horsley, Effingham, Lovelace, and Send.

Neighbours

Neighbours with borders of more than 2 miles (3.2 km) were: