Church Fields Recreation Ground

St Mary the Virgin was the medieval church of the village of Chessington, although there may have been an earlier church on the site. Parts of the current building date from the C13th, with later additions and restoration taking place in ensuring centuries. The churchyard has gravestones among grass, and is hedged to the road, with a gate and overthrow erected in memory of Gertrude Field in 1980. Trees include a number of large evergreens and two yews. In the mid C19th access to the church was via footpaths and lanes, but it is now surrounded by a C20th housing estate.

The borough boundary is on an ancient lane called Chessington Park Lane, which is on the eastern boundary of Castle Hill. Earthworks here are believed to be the remains of a medieval hunting lodge that was at the northern end of a medieval deer park owned by Merton College, Oxford, so-called after William Merton, Lord of the Manor, who had enabled poor scholars to go to Oxford University. The deer park had extended to Park Farm in the south, and Bonesgate Stream to the west. Previously oak woodland, it was cleared of trees by the C19th for fields and meadows. A small area of woodland near the earthwork was planted in the C19th and a path runs through the site to Horton Country Park. It is managed as a local nature reserve.

Once the southern part of Surbiton Common, on the 1838 Enclosure map what is now Causeway Copse was marked as Gooseberry Hill, prior to which it had been known as Gosborough Hyll or Gosbury Hill. The woodland was owned by Merton Priory, and in 1537 was leased to William Saunders, requiring high standards of management. It remains partly wooded and is now a small park with a playground, surrounded by housing, reached through a narrow path from The Causeway by Durbin Road.