Weybridge heath
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Weybridge Heath is a part of Weybridge common.
The Heath comprises 190,200 square metres of lowland heathland that runs from the deep cutting of the South Western Main Line railway, eastwards to Cobbetts Hill. To the west of the railway line much of the original heathland is now occupied by Heathside secondary school and Brooklands College.
During the 1970s and '80s the heathland fell into a poor state of repair because the surrounding brush was ill-maintained and coppicing, which is essential for the maintenance of small heaths, had ceased. Gradually, the area became more and more overgrown with newly grown brush composed of the saplings of deciduous trees, and became to resemble more of a young wood.
Because the area used to contain many species of ants, rare birds and insectivorous plants, Elmbridge (or maybe Surrey county?) council embarked, in around 2000 upon a project to renew the heathland and encourage the return of the area to its original habitat type. It consisted of the removal of a large number of taller trees from a central portion of the site, and the clearing of brush from this area. The council hopes that the area will be returned to something approaching its former glory within a decade.
Evidence of the regrowth of heathland is not great to date (2003), and some local residents are sceptical about the apparent defacement of the area, dubbing the cleared area "the bomb site".
It was on the original heath in this location that British myrmecologist Horace Donisthorpe collected many of the ants from which he produced so many observations and deductions.
References
- The Common Lands of Surrey (http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-countryside/issues/common/biosurvey/countyreports/surrey.pdf)
- Surrey Heathland Project (http://www.countryside-management.org.uk/)