Ashtead Common National Nature Reserve

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Overview

Ashtead Common NNR is a 500-acre wooded common in northeast Surrey which contains over 2,300 ancient oak pollards. The reserve’s diverse habitats, which include woodland, grassland, scrub and wetland habitats such as ponds, streams, ditches and springs, support a wide variety of plant and animal species including several hundred species of fungi, lichen and mosses. Some 50 different species of trees and shrubs and more than 300 species of wildflowers are found here, including greater yellow rattle, bluebell, wood anemone and southern marsh orchid. The large area of oak pollards (relic woodland pasture) provides an important habitat for bats, woodpeckers, owls and nuthatches, together with butterflies such as the purple emperor and purple hairstreak. Over 1,000 species of beetle have been recorded, of which more than 150 are internationally rare. Ashtead is home to a variety of amphibians and reptiles such as adders, as well as mammals such as bats, voles, foxes and roe deer.

Location

Ashtead

About the area

Surrey is one of England’s most wooded counties, with over a quarter of the landscape designated as an official AONB and plenty of history evident in the countryside. You’ll find sandy tracks, cottage gardens and welcoming village inns, and on the fringe of Greater London you can picnic in Chaldon’s hay meadows, explore the downs at Epsom, or drift idly beside the River Thames.