High Elms Country Park
| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
Cuckoo Wood
|
|
| Area of Search | Greater London |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | TQ446625 |
| Interest | Biological |
| Area | 69.1 hectares |
| Notification | 1981 |
| Location map | Magic Map |
Coordinates: 51°21′04″N 0°04′30″E / 51.351°N 0.075°E
High Elms Country Park is an extensive 250-acre (100 ha) public park on the North Downs in Farnborough in the London Borough of Bromley. It is a Local Nature Reserve, and together with the neighbouring Downe Bank, a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The park surrounds High Elms Golf Course, and has extensive woodland, chiefly oak and beech, chalk meadows and formal gardens. It also has a cafe, a visitor centre, nature and history trails and car parks.
The rangers of the Bromley Countryside Service, who manage borough owned parks, are based at the park.
There is access from High Elms Road and Shire Lane.
The history of the High Elms estate can be traced back to the Norman Conquest, when it was given by William the Conqueror to his half-brother, Odo, bishop of Bayeux. In the early nineteenth century it was acquired by the Lubbock family, and in 1840 the astronomer and banker, Sir John Lubbock, 3rd Baronet inherited it on the death of his father. He built a grand new mansion in the Italian style. He became a friend of Charles Darwin, who lived nearby at Down House, and Lubbock's son, the fourth baronet, also called John Lubbock and later Baron Avebury, was a close friend of Darwin and frequent visitor to Down House from his childhood.
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