Beverley Meads and Fishpond Wood

Beverley Meads comprises four small meadows (meads) that were part of Warren Farm, on land that was formerly owned by the Abbey of Merton, which had existed until the C16th. The fields are in the south-west corner of Wimbledon Common (q.v.) and border the Royal Wimbledon Golf Course. In the 1950s the land was acquired for public recreational use by Wimbledon Borough Council by which time Beverley Meads had last been used for agricultural purposes before WWII. Aerial photographs taken in 1946 show the fields as open land with hedges and mature trees but the area is now partially wooded since grazing was discontinued, allowing trees particularly birch and oak to grow. In the early 1970s, after the formation of the new London Borough of Merton in 1965 that took in Wimbledon Borough Council, Beverley Meads was laid out for a 9-hole pitch and putt course. However, in 1981 the course was abandoned due to lack of use, although aerial photographs of 1988 still show the position of some greens and tees, and a number of these may still be discernable on the ground. From 1981-92, apart from litter clearance and some tree planting, little management work occurred. In 1993 the two southern fields were established as a local nature reserve, which LB Merton handed over to London Wildlife Trust to manage. The two northern fields were leased to a pony club. Paths run through the woodland and to the north is Fishpond Wood, also managed by the London Wildlife Trust. Within Fishpond Wood are two old ponds, although little substantive is known about their origin or even whether they were used as fishponds. They may date from medieval times, created for the use of the monks of Merton Abbey, but this is purely speculative. Alternatively they may have been created to store water for an Elizabethan textile mill at Mill Corner on the Beverley Brook that burnt down between 1520-1600.

The Wimbledon manorial rolls of 1763 described this area as 'waste' suggesting it was used as commonland. Most large houses at this time had their own private ponds for keeping fish, particularly carp, and such ponds were usually (but not always) marked on the maps of the time, but those of Fishpond Wood are not. What is clear is that the ponds are at least partly artificial, as suggested by the obvious banks of spoil. The ponds are traceable on maps made at the turn of the C19th, at which time the whole area was part of the Wimbledon Park estate. Merton Council has rebuilt banks that drain the ponds. The woodland contains some trees of over 200 years old but is now largely scrub oak and overgrown fields used as grazing land.

Management was formerly carried out by London Wildlife Trust but any formal involvement in the site ceased in 2018. The overall size of the site is 5.72 hectares (Beverley Meads 3.58 and Fishpond Wood 2.14).