Ludshott Common and Waggoners Wells - History

History

The original name of the series of ponds was Wakeners' Wells. The ponds were created in the 17th Century by the Hooke family of Bramshott. They were possibly originally intended as hammer ponds, that is, to serve the local iron industry, but they appear never to have been so used.

Ludshott Common owes its present state to the traditional use made of common land by local people: to graze their cattle, pigs, sheep, and ponies and to collect gorse, heather, wood, and bracken for fuel, and for animal bedding and winter fodder. Such uses ceased around the beginning of the 20th century.

During second world war in the 1940s, Ludshott was used as a tank and maneuvers training ground, and the heather was largely turned to mud. The heather recovered, and was managed from the 1970s until today.

On 12 May 1980, 600 of the 695 acres (2.81 km2) were destroyed by a fire fanned by high winds. Residents of Seymour Road, Furze Hill and Pond Roads which bordered the common, to the west, in Headley Down were evacuated. Firefighters bought the fire under control in just over seven hours at 19:55. Relief crews remained on site overnight controlling small outbreaks of fire and damping down, with further relief crews taking over at 06:00 the following morning.