TQ1462 : Horse ride to Arbrook Farm
taken 11 years ago, near to Esher, Surrey, England
A metropolitan common, registration unit CL265, extending to about 20 hectares, located just south of Claygate in north Surrey. The common is one of several contiguous areas of common land known as the Esher commons, and owned and managed by Elmbridge Borough Council (Oxshott Heath is separately managed by a board of conservators). Arbrook common is bounded by farmland belonging to Loseberry Farm on the east, and the Rythe on the west side, although in practice all of the common east of Copsem Lane tends now to be referred to as Arbrook Common.
Although once largely open heathland, a cessation of grazing, probably early in the twentieth century, has caused most of the common to be evolve into dense woodland: however, an area of heathland can be found along the line of the electricity transmission line which crosses the common from east to west, and which must be kept clear of trees to avoid the risk of short circuits and consequent fire.
The common is subject to a public right of access under section 193 of the Law of Property Act 1925, although byelaws made by the council confine horse riders to several designated horse rides, and the one public bridleway off Birchwood Lane. Oddly, the common was accidentally omitted from maps of registered common land drawn up by the Countryside Agency in 2001 under Part I of the Countryside & Rights of Way Act 2000 for the purposes of the statutory right of access: the section 193 rights endure regardless, but in consequence, the land is not marked on current Ordnance Survey Explorer maps as access land.