Sutton Common

Before the process of enclosure began, the common was known as "Sutton Heath" and is likely to have covered an area as far north and east as Morden (then located much further to the south than it is now, around St Lawrence Church), Mitcham and the banks of the River Wandle, approximately where Benhilton and St. Helier are now.

The land was not especially productive for agriculture on account of its heavy clay content and so it was mostly used by local people for grazing animals and to cut peat, turf and timber for fuel.

Henry VIII, circa 1538-40, took 3,050 tonnes of stone from the despoiled Merton Priory to build Nonsuch Palace: it was carted along Sutton's boundary at a cost of twopence per mile.

In 1643, during the English Civil War, Royalist troops passed along the road in retreat, and three of their soldiers are buried in the churchyard of St Dunstan's, Cheam.

The word 'highwayman' first appeared in the English language in 1617, not long before Epsom became a spa in 1620 and the first recorded horse race took place at Banstead Downs in 1625.

In the same year, the surveyor William Brazier made a plan of the manor of Sutton and measured the whole of the Common as far as Pylford Bridge (the north-west boundary of the manor) and close under the hedge to the corner of Lower Morden Lane: he measured the Common as being 241 acres 2 roods 31 perches in size with roads 20 feet wide.

[7]One Surrey folk-rhyme[8] refers to the area's popular reputation during the 18th century for both agriculture and criminality: Sutton for mutton, Carshalton for beeves; Epsom for whores, and Ewell for thieves.Proximity to London provided readily accessible targets for Metropolitan criminals travelling outwards, and to 'local' thieves who were attracted to crime by the ease with which stolen items could be liquidated in the nearby capital.

The accompanying text states: There are several Downs and Commons in this County, where the Air is extremely wholesome, especially about Dorking; esteem'd the sweetest in England.

This abounds with Wallnut Trees, more than any other County in England, the Soil being proper for them...The Fuel for Firing was formerly mostly Wood, but that being now almost destroy'd, they burn Peat, Turf and Cole.

A 1792 history of Surrey describes Sutton: The cultivated land is principally arable; the proportion of meadow being very small; the downs and commons are extensive.

The inhabitants have a right of turning out their cattle upon Sutton and Bonhill commons in this parish, during a certain part of the year...The soil to the north of the village is a strong clay, between which and the chalky lands there runs a narrow vein of sand.

On 5 February 1812, a blue coach travelling between Sutton and Reigate was robbed of three or four thousand pounds in bank notes: it remained an unsolved mystery.

"[15] In the 1840s, Sutton Common only had two farms and a few cottages, but by 1868 there were some 29 large residences, some of which were located in the new, upmarket parish of Benhilton on the eastern side of Angel Hill.

Kelly's Directory of Surrey 1903 contains the following entry: "The [Sutton] Common runs westward from Benhilton church for about 1 mile, and contains some mansions and villa residences.

In 1913 a small number of cottages, presumably intended to house the factory workers, had been built to the south west of the sewage works along Gander Green Lane.

After the end of the First World War, more houses were built and Sutton Common railway station opened on 5 January 1930 (see main article).

Sutton Common Park, adjoining the Recreation Ground, contains a wet marsh and wild area for conserving and studying local biodiversity.

The main public house in the area is The Plough, now a Harvester, at the junction of Sutton Common Road and Reigate Avenue.

Cycle route 208 from Angel Hill to Wimbledon traverses Rosehill Park West and the Reigate Avenue (A217)and Sutton Common Recreation Grounds.