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19-460: Hounslow Heath is a local nature reserve in the London Borough of Hounslow and at a point borders Richmond upon Thames . The public open space, which covers 200 acres (80 ha), is all that remains of the historic Hounslow Heath which covered more than 4,000 acres (1,600 ha). The present day area is bounded by A315 Staines Road, A3063 Wellington Road South, A314 Hanworth Road, and

38-666: A guide to their selection and declaration , 2000). Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust The Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust ( ABCT ), founded 2006, is a non-profit organisation that works to preserve and protect airfields in Great Britain, as well as educating people about their history. The Trust is a registered charity. They place inscribed memorial stones on or near disused airfields, which have included

57-623: A memorial at Fambridge , Essex in February 2009, at Windermere in Cumbria in 2011 and at Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre in May 2012. Other memorial locations include Harrowbeer , Hatfield , Lanark , Leavesden , Matlaske , Okehampton , Podington , Swannington , Westcott and Woburn Park . This article related to a non-profit organization is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about an airport in

76-575: A nature reserve (Section 15). The hope of the Special Committee was to see sites protected which represented sites of local scientific interest, which could be used by schools for field teaching and experiment, and in which people with no special interest in natural history could "... derive great pleasure from the peaceful contemplation of nature ." A Local Nature Reserve (capitalised) is a statutory designation made under Section 21 – "Establishment of nature reserves by local authorities" – of

95-610: A repair depot. On the south side of Staines Road, to the north of the Heath, is a monument, now in a state of neglect, commemorating the first flight to Australia , a modified Vickers Vimy bomber G-EAOU, flown by Australian brothers Keith and Ross Smith, which took off from Hounslow Heath Aerodrome on 12 November 1919 and arrived in Darwin on 10 December. A plaque marks the entrance to London's first civil airport, stating: "London Terminal Aerodrome Hounslow Heath August 1919 - 1920. From here

114-528: A round house. There are various remains of former mills and other industrial archaeological features adjoining the River Crane near the heath. This part of the river is classified as an Archaeological Priority Area . Hounslow Heath is a designated local nature reserve and Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation , and is made up of lowland heath, dry acid grassland, woodland, scrub, neutral grasslands, wetlands, wildflower meadows, providing

133-555: A wild, rugged country setting with a large network of paths. Local nature reserve There are now over 1,280 LNRs in England, covering almost 40,000 hectares, which range from windswept coastal headlands and ancient woodlands to former inner city railways and long abandoned landfill sites. The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 combined elements of several of these categories in its definition of

152-621: Is usually given via the local plan (produced by the planning authority ), and often supplemented by local by-laws. However, there is no national legal protection specifically for LNRs. Information on LNRs is available from the Countryside Council for Wales ( A Place for Nature at your Doorstep: the role of Local Nature Reserves , 2004), Natural England ( Local Nature Reserves: places for people and wildlife , 2000) and Scottish Natural Heritage ( Local Nature Reserves in Scotland:

171-677: The National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 by principal local authorities (district, borough or unitary councils) in England , Scotland and Wales . Parish and town councils in England have no direct power to designate nature reserves, but they can have the powers to do so delegated to them by their principal local authority using section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972 . The first LNR in Scotland

190-445: The River Crane . The heathland of Hounslow Heath originally covered an area underlain by Taplow gravel that now includes parts of Bedfont , Brentford , Cranford , Feltham , Hampton , Fulwell , Hanworth , Harlington , Harmondsworth , Heston , Hounslow , Isleworth , Stanwell , Teddington , Twickenham , and Heathrow . Hounslow Heath has had major historical importance, originally crossed by main routes from London to

209-737: The 17th and 18th centuries, the heath was notorious as the haunt of highwaymen and footpads , being crossed by the Great West Road and the Bath Road . The eventual mapping of the whole of the United Kingdom by the Ordnance Survey began with the measuring of an accurate base-line on Hounslow Heath, chosen for its flatness and its relative proximity to the Royal Greenwich Observatory . A sighting

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228-638: The first British international airline operation and the first flight from Europe to Australia was made. Erected by the Heston and Isleworth Borough Council". On 10 April 2016, another memorial to the aerodrome was unveiled and dedicated by the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust immediately south of the car park beside the Staines Road. An area to the west of the present heath was used for gravel extraction after World War II . Used for landfill until

247-549: The heath due to its proximity to London, Windsor and Hampton Court . Oliver Cromwell stationed an army there at the end of the English Civil War in 1647. James II camped his army there, and conducted military exercises and mock battles to try to intimidate the population in London. In 1793, Hounslow Barracks was built to the north of Staines Road as part of the preparations to meet a possible French invasion. In

266-491: The late 1960s, the land was reclaimed to form Hounslow Heath Golf Centre which opened in 1979. Bronze Age spearheads, axes, and sword and knife fragments from Hounslow, are held at the British Museum, also Celtic badges and amulets discovered in a field at Hounslow in 1864. In 1999, excavations on the former Feltham Marshalling Yards to the south of the heath unearthed remains of an Iron Age furnace and post holes from

285-630: The management of the LNR onto County Wildlife Trusts . LNRs also often have good public access and facilities. An LNR can also be an SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest) , but often is not, or may have other designations (although an LNR cannot also be a national nature reserve ). Except where the site is an SSSI, there is no legal necessity to manage an LNR to any set standard, but management agreements often exist. An LNR may be given protection against damaging operations. It also has certain protection against development on and around it. This protection

304-418: The outbreak of World War I in 1914, Hounslow Heath Aerodrome was established, that developed to become a fighter aircraft defence and training base. In 1919, the aerodrome became the sole London Terminal Aerodrome , and hosted the first scheduled daily international commercial air services. In 1920, it surrendered its role to Croydon Airport , and closed. The heath was then again used for military training and

323-458: The west and southwest of Britain. Staines Road, the northern boundary of the present heath, was the Roman Road , Via Trinobantes. There are several historic references to Roman camps on or close to the heath. Continuous recorded history dates back to Norman times . In 1546, Hounslow Heath was surveyed with a recorded area of 4,293 acres (1,737 ha) (6.71 square miles). Various armies used

342-521: Was established in 1952 at Aberlady in East Lothian . To establish a LNR, the declaring local authority must first have a legal interest in the land concerned, for example, they could own it, lease it or have a nature reserve agreement with the owner. The land must lie within the area which the declaring authority controls. LNRs are of local, but not necessarily national, importance. LNRs are almost always owned by local authorities, who often pass

361-691: Was made of the spire of All Saints' church in Banstead , and along that line a length of 27,400 feet was very precisely measured. This work by General William Roy was the start of the Anglo-French Survey (1784–1790) , which led to the Principal Triangulation of Great Britain . By 1900, the heath was still in use as a training ground for horse-mounted cavalry based at Hounslow Barracks , a gun shooting range, and adjacent army medical units including an isolation hospital. After

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