We took the two dogs – Niko and Basel – Banstead Woods and Chipstead Downs! This place consists of a large forest and rolling meadows around 4.3 miles South of Sutton!
Banstead Woods is one of three sites of Special Scientific Interest that we maintain under guidelines from Natural England.
- Banstead Woods and Chipstead Downs Local Nature Reserve is located at Holly Lane car park, Holly Lane, Banstead, Surrey CR5 3NR.
Banstead Woods (previously known as the Banstead Park Estate) was a deer park in the medieval period sheltering the royal deer (enclosed in 1439). In 1598 Banstead Park was stated to contain about 160 acres. It belonged to the Spencer family in 1841 when the name changed to Banstead Wood.
Scattered throughout the woods are characters from the famous children’s fantasy book entitled ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ – written by CS Lewis! Oddly, although we did not intend to find these objects – we discovered them very quickly just by accident! It seems that just by instinct – we took all the right turnings through the woods – and each of these characters suddenly materialised! Banstead is a predominantly ‘White’, middle-class area – so my T-Shirt (AK47 – Killing Capitalists Since 1947) raised a few eyebrows!
SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 