If you watched our recent film about the importance of protecting green space, featuring our Patron, The Prince of Wales, and President, Jill Scott MBE, you may have recognised its beautiful park location as Windlesham Field of Remembrance in Surrey.
“Having Prince William and Jill Scott film at Windlesham was really wonderful,” says Mike Sheard, Chair of Trustees of Windlesham Field of Remembrance.
The park is a vital hub for the local community, bringing people together to play cricket and football, visit the children’s play area, explore the peaceful woodland, or enjoy a hot drink at the café.
“We opened to the public in 1950, so we're over 75 years old now,” says Mike. “The nice thing is that it was created as a community project."
The land was originally part of a local Admiral’s estate before being bought by members of the community.
“Back then, the space was already in the centre of the village. Of course, the village has grown since then. But in a very strange way, we're still in the middle.
“Admiral Cochrane wanted it to be owned by the local community,” explains Mike. “What he gave at the time was about six and a half acres of playing fields.
“The idea of the playing fields was that they would provide sport, so it was always going to be a space for football, cricket and other sports. Then, in the 1970s, a group of parents got together and decided to put in a play area. Having a play area created a very different vibe and made the space more child-orientated and more of a community hub.
“Another addition has been the woodlands. When Admiral Cochrane’s wife passed away, she left us the woodland. It forms this big lung in the centre of the village.”
“At the very bottom of the woodland is Lady Owen’s pond, which acts as a draw to all sorts of different wildlife,” says Mike. “It’s also particularly popular with the local nursery schools – I often see children peering into the water when I go down there.
“We have a lot of grey squirrels and in the evening, we do get foxes and bats,” Mike adds. “It's a very small thing to be proud of, but we recently put in bat boxes. We now know, because we do an annual survey, that we have common pipistrelles and soprano pipistrelles.
“Because of our position in the village, we also act as a little bit of a wildlife corridor. We don’t see them very often, but we sometimes have muntjac deer. To the south of us, there is the original house that Admiral Cochrane lived in. And after he passed away, it burned down. So all of that land is undeveloped. And the deer from further down the village use that as a track.”
Windlesham Field of Remembrance is home to an idyllic forest school where young children have the opportunity to explore and learn with nature right on their doorstep.
“It's like a sea of little yellow high-vis jackets in the woodland,” says Mike. “But it's lovely because instead of it being a visit, it’s just part of these children’s lives. They’re out there every day.
“They go out into the woodland and at that age, they're not going to destroy or damage anything. They're all about questions.”
Windlesham Field of Remembrance became legally protected forever with Fields in Trust in 2017 as part of our Centenary Fields programme, following concerns that it might fall into the hands of developers.
“My first involvement with Windlesham Field of Remembrance was I helped to put up the play area one weekend,” says Mike. “But the main reason I got involved was that the Royal British Legion was one of the initial signatories on the document when Admiral Cochrane made the transfer of the land to the community. And I'm Chairman of the Windlesham branch of the Royal British Legion.
“That's very important to us, because of course it is, after all, a memorial field. It’s built around the idea that the village has a core that is about remembering those who lost their lives or were injured and affected by war.
“At the field, we have a small memorial and on Remembrance Day itself, there's always a parade. The nicest thing is that the local schools and nursery bring some of their students along, and they provide a piper and a trumpeter. So it’s not just about the older members of the community, it’s about the next generation too.”
Because Windlesham Field of Remembrance is protected with Fields in Trust, it is legally protected for the local community to enjoy forever.
“My children are in their late 30s and early 40s and they grew up feeling like the field was a part of their own heritage,” says Mike. “They don’t live nearby anymore, but when they come down to visit with their children, we take them down to the Field.
“It’s a place that each generation passes on to their children, so ensuring it is always there is really important.”
To see more of Windlesham Field of Remembrance, you can watch our film with our Patron, The Prince of Wales, and President, Jill Scott MBE, about the importance of protecting green space below.