General Information
Location
Chislehurst Common, approximate central point, grid reference TQ 443703.
St Paul's Cray Common, approximate central point, grid reference TQ 452693.
St Paul's Cray Common abuts the Hawkwood Estate and Petts Wood (both National Trust lands) to the west, and Scadbury Local Nature Reserve, St Paul's Green and Hoblingwell Wood (all owned by the London Borough of Bromley) to the east.
Chislehurst Common includes the ground of the Chislehurst and West Kent Cricket Club.
Local authority
The London Borough of Bromley.
Area
The two Commons together total 71.8 hectares.
Site status
As scheduled by the Kent Wildlife Trust, Chislehurst Common is a Site of Natural Conservation Interest (SNCI) Grade 2, and St Paul's Cray Common is categorised as SNCI Grade 1, together with the immediately adjacent Petts Wood and Hawkwood Estate.
The Commons are categorised as Green Belt.
The Commons are not registered under the Commons Registration Act, 1965. During the time allowed for registration under the Act the matter was considered by the then Board members and the view was taken that the 1888 Act conferred all the protection that was needed. This decision may not have been for the best. Registration could, for example, have spared the Conservators a legal defence against an encroachment in recent years, in which the Board was eventually successful, but at considerable cost. On the other hand, under Section 9 of the Act, wherever it proved impossible to trace owners, commons for which registration was being sought, had to be placed under the protection of their local authorities. At that time the title to St Paul's Cray Common was unclaimed and it is hard to know whether the London Borough of Bromley would have been as zealous in protecting the Commons as the Conservators have been.
The land tenure details are as follows. The freehold title of Chislehurst Common is held by the Lord of the Manor of Scadbury, Chislehurst and Frognal and was registered with the Land Registry in 1998. The same Lord of the Manor, namely, Princess Lobanov Rostovsky and Clover Investment Co Ltd, registered as the freehold owner of St Paul's Cray Common in 2003. The registration records the fact that the Commons are subject to the 1888 Act and also to an 1898 Deed.
Although the Board of Trustees does not have title to the Commons, the use which the freeholder may make of the land is restricted by the management powers conferred on the Trustees both by the Metropolitan Commons (Chislehurst and St Paul's Cray) Supplemental Act, 1888, and by a deed made between the Lord of the Manor and the Board in 1898.