Harrow Weald Common is an 18-hectare area of woodland, heath and pasture in

Harrow Weald Harrow Weald is a suburban district in Greater London, England. Located about north of Harrow, Harrow Weald is formed from a leafy 1930s suburban development along with ancient woodland of Harrow Weald Common. It forms part of the London Boro ...

in the

London Borough of Harrow The London Borough of Harrow () is a London borough in northwest London, England; it forms part of Outer London. It borders four other London boroughs Barnet to the east of ancient Watling Street (now the A5 road), Brent to the southeast, Ea ...

. It is considered of considerable importance for wildlife, and it was formerly part of the ''Stanmore and Harrow Weald Commons and Bentley Priory''

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

, but in 1987 the boundaries of the SSSI were revised to exclude the Common. It has been designated by the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the 1998 Greater London Authority referendum, Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first Directly elected may ...

as a

Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation Site of Nature Conservation Interest (SNCI), Site of Importance for Nature Conservation (SINC) and regionally important geological site (RIGS) are designations used by local authorities in the United Kingdom for sites of substantive local nature ...

History

The word ''weald'' is derived from

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

''wald'', a wooded upland. Harrow Weald Common is one of the remnants of the once extensive

Forest of Middlesex The Forest of Middlesex was an ancient woodland covering much of the county of Middlesex, England, that was north of the City of London and now forms the northern part of Greater London. A path was cut through the forest for the creation of Watling ...

. In the eighteenth century it was a haunt of highwaymen. Following the

Enclosure Acts The Inclosure Acts, which use an archaic spelling of the word now usually spelt "enclosure", cover enclosure of open fields and common land in England and Wales, creating legal property rights to land previously held in common. Between 1604 and 1 ...

, one of the rights granted to the commoners was gravel extraction, and this took place on a large scale in the nineteenth century. In the 1880s there was an attempt to get government agreement to the sale of the Common, but a successful campaign to oppose this was supported by

W. S. Gilbert Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (18 November 1836 – 29 May 1911) was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his collaboration with composer Arthur Sullivan, which produced fourteen comic operas. The most f ...

, who lived locally at a house called

Grim's Dyke Grim's Dyke (sometimes called Graeme's Dyke until late 1891)How, Harry ''The Strand Magazine'', Vol. 2, October 1891, pp. 330–41, reprinted at ''The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive'', 20 November 2011 is a house and estate in Harrow Weald, in nort ...

. In 1899 the Metropolitan Commons (Harrow Weald) Supplemental Act revoked most of the rights of the commoners and a board of Conservators was set up to manage the Common. London Gardens Online, Harrow Weald Common, Grim's Dyke Open Space, The City Open Space
/ref> Harrow Weald Common is

Common Land Common land is land owned by a person or collectively by a number of persons, over which other persons have certain common rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect Wood fuel, wood, or to cut turf for fuel. A person ...

not owned by anyone, and in 1965 it was placed under the protection of Harrow Council. The Harrow Weald Common Conservators are now a Friends Group which manage the site.

The site

The site includes Grims' Dyke Open Space. Grim's Dyke or Grim's Ditch is an ancient earthwork which runs for three miles between Harrow Weald Common and Pinner Green. Its purpose is unknown, and it may date from the fifth or sixth centuries. Adjacent to the site are the City Open Space, Harrow Weald SSSI, a geological

, and

Bentley Priory Nature Reserve Bentley Priory Nature Reserve is a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Local Nature Reserve in Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow, surrounding the stately home of Bentley Priory. It is a 55 hectare mosaic of ancient woodland, unimpro ...

, a biological SSSI. There is access from Common Road and Old Redding.

References

External links

VisitWoods, Harrow Weald Common and Weald Wood, a London Borough of Harrow wood

BBC, Domesday Reloaded, Harrow Weald Common

Harrow Council, Harrow Weald Common

London Gardens Online, Harrow Weald Common, Grim's Dyke Open Space, The City Open Space
{{coord, 51.624, -0.346, dim:2000_region:GB, display=title Nature reserves in the London Borough of Harrow Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Harrow Common land in London

History

The site

See also

References

External links