1 Statement of significance.
Commons are familiar features throughout the Surrey Hills covering about 5% of the AONB and generally have a public right of access. They include vast open tracts of heathy common at Thursley, Puttenham and Frensham, and wooded commons at Ranmore, Hurtwood and Witley. Traditional village greens like Hambledon and Tilford have usually evolved from common land. They are a key heritage feature and often have a very high landscape value. Many commons have a high nature conservation value, particularly heathland and chalk downland, and many are also popular visitor destinations, particularly those with views such as Ranmore.All registered commons should be accessible under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 for recreational use and they are a major resource for fresh air and exercise.
Commons were probably first identified, bounded and utilised by the Saxons, with most being claimed by manors and parishes, with complex grazing rights in place about 1000 years ago. Most commons evolved from ‘rough grazing’ and some may have been associated closely with ‘Manorial waste’. The term common originally referred to the rights of grazing, cutting firewood, furze and minerals by manorial tenants, not to a common right of access. Most have a complex mix of grasses, herbaceous plants, scrub, heath and woodland, and remaining open areas of common owe their survival to management by grazing and mechanical clearance.
2 Management issues.
The traditional method of managing commons through grazing and mechanical clearance is now an expensive undertaking, with little or no commercial returns, and often compounded by the difficulty in fencing common land. Managing visitor pressures also requires significant resources for maintaining car parks and rights of way. Many commons, particularly smaller parcels, are not managed and have been rapidly colonised with trees and scrub, and have little conservation or recreation value because of enclosure and loss of views. Where commons abut settlements, they have been vulnerable to encroachment by land adopted by adjacent householders, problems relating to fly tipping and more intensive gardening use. Erosion by car parking can be a major problem on some village commons.