Final Final Wimbledon Common March 2025 - Flipbook - Page 7
Wimbledon Common is London9s largest common, covering 1,200 acres including Putney
Heath in the north. Its most ancient feature is Bensbury Camp, popularly though
misleadingly known as Caesar9s Camp, a hill-fort that probably dates from around the
seventh century BC.
The common was for centuries part of the manor of Mortlake, owned by the archbishops of
Canterbury, with rights of hunting and grazing granted to local tenants. It acquired a
reputation as a duelling ground: the politicians Pitt the Younger, Castlereagh and Canning
were among those who fought here. Earl Spencer gained legal authority to enclose the
common in 1803, but backed down in the face of local protests.
The best-known landmark on Wimbledon Common is the windmill, built in 1817 to grind
corn and now a museum devoted to windmills and woodworking. In a cottage beside the
windmill, Robert Baden-Powell began to write Scouting for Boys in 1907.
The common has been in public ownership since 1871, but only when the National Riûe
Association left for Bisley in 1889 did full freedom of movement become possible. The ûrst
golf course was laid out in 1908.
source: hidden-london.com
