Editing London Borough of Sutton (section)

==Parks and open spaces==
[[File:Oaks Park - Apr 2014.jpg|thumb|Trees in flower in [[Oaks Park (London)|Oaks Park]]]]
[[File:Snow in Manor Park Sutton.jpg|thumb|Fountain in [[Manor Park, Sutton|Manor Park]], [[Sutton, London|Sutton]]]]
[[File:Waterfall London Borough of Sutton.jpg|thumb|The waterfall in [[Grove Park (Sutton)|Grove Park]]]]
[[File:The fountain at Butter Hill - geograph.org.uk - 362488.jpg|thumb|The fountain at Butter Hill]]
[[File:Boating lake, Beddington Park - geograph.org.uk - 1212630.jpg|thumb|Boating lake, Beddington Park]]
[[File:Carshalton.jpg|thumb|Leoni Bridge, Grove Park]]
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In total, the London Borough of Sutton has 89 parks and open spaces within it boundaries, representing a total area of {{convert|1500|acre|km2}}.

===Main parks===
Green spaces range from the compact [[Manor Park, Sutton|Manor Park]] in [[Sutton, London|Sutton town centre]] and Sutton Green just to the north of Sutton town centre, through the medium-sized [[Grove Park, Carshalton|Grove Park]], which forms a notable part of the Carshalton conservation area, to the large and historic [[Oaks Park, Carshalton|Oaks Park]] in the south of the borough. In the west is the large [[Nonsuch Park]], the majority of which (including the mansion) lies in the neighbouring borough of [[Epsom and Ewell]].

Just to the north of Sutton town centre there is more extensive green space in the form of Sutton Common, which originally (until the beginning of the 19th century) encompassed the aforementioned Sutton Green. Today, a small portion of Sutton Common is given over to a major junior tennis facility. The common extends both to the east and west of Angel Hill.
Slightly further in the opposite direction out of Sutton lie Banstead Common and Banstead Downs—these start a few hundred yards from the southern end of the town, and extend for an additional mile south in the direction of neighbouring [[Banstead]].

[[Manor Park, Sutton|Manor Park]] was created in 1914 on a site in the town centre opposite the police station. Its grounds include the Sutton War Memorial, which was added in 1921. A fountain was added in 1924. In 2010 its new café of straw-bale construction was London's first environmentally friendly building to use this building method.

Features of interest in the Victorian [[Grove Park, Carshalton|Grove Park]] include a white [[Portland stone]] bridge, known as the ''Leoni Bridge'' where ''Lower Pond'' meets the park. Upper Mill is recent reconstruction of a [[watermill]] that has existed here from Anglo-Saxon times. The cascade is near the footbridge towards the Stone Court corner of the park. The 1.5m fall is now ornamental in design and was reconstructed in the 1960s. Its original purpose was to create a head of water to power Upper Mill.

[[Oaks Park, Carshalton|Oaks Park]] has a long history. It was substantially laid out for the [[Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby|Earl of Derby]] in the 1770s, but its villa dates back to around 1750 and is in that era's fashionable landscape style, with trees forming a perimeter screen and placed in artful clumps to suggest a natural landscape.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Oaks & Oaks Park, London Borough of Sutton |url=http://www.sutton.gov.uk/leisure/heritage/Carshalton/oaksandpark.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080507113955/http://www.sutton.gov.uk/leisure/heritage/Carshalton/oaksandpark.htm |archive-date=7 May 2008 }}</ref>

[[Nonsuch Park]] near [[Cheam]] in the west is the last surviving part of the Little Park of Nonsuch, a deer hunting park established by [[Henry VIII of England]] surrounding the former [[Nonsuch Palace]]. The name "Nonsuch" was given as, it was claimed, there was "none such place like it" in Europe.<ref>[http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-457-1/dissemination/pdf/vol01/vol01_05/01_05_111_113.pdf ''Nonsuch: A Lost Tudor Palace''], [[Philippa Glanville]]</ref>

===List of parks===
The main parks in the borough are:
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* [[Beddington Park]]
* [[Carshalton Park]]
* Cheam Park
* [[Grove Park, Carshalton|Grove Park]]
* Lakeside
* [[Manor Park, Sutton|Manor Park]], Sutton town centre
* [[Mellows Park]]
* [[Nonsuch Park]]
* [[Oaks Park, Carshalton|Oaks Park]]
* [[Rosehill, London|Rosehill]] Park East and West
* Overton Park
* Poulter Park [https://archive.today/20130812121124/https://www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=17101 Poulter Park]
* [[Queen Mary's Park]]
* Roundshaw Down
* Royston Park
* Seer's Park
* St Helier Open Space
* The Wandle Walkway
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===Local nature reserves===
Sutton also contains a large number of [[Local Nature Reserve]]s:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lnr.naturalengland.org.uk/Special/lnr/lnr_results.asp?N=&C=17&Submit=Search |publisher=Natural England |title=Local Nature Reserves: Search results for Greater London |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927113247/http://www.lnr.naturalengland.org.uk/special/lnr/lnr_results.asp?N=&C=17&Submit=Search |archive-date=27 September 2013 }}</ref>
* [[Anton Crescent Wetland]] has ponds, willow [[Carr (landform)|carr]] and reedbeds, and the ponds never dry out as the rock formation is [[Oxford Clay]]. The pools and mud provide a habitat for birds such as the [[green sandpiper]] and [[common snipe]].
* [[Belmont Pastures]] is a long narrow triangle north of Belmont railway station. It is an old meadow which formerly belonged to Belmont Hospital.
* [[Cuddington Meadows]] is mainly chalk grassland with some scrub. Its most important feature is a variety of unusual flowering plants, including [[greater knapweed]], [[lady's bedstraw]] and [[field scabious]].
* [[Devonshire Avenue Nature Area]] is mainly neutral grassland, but it has areas of chalk grassland, scrub and trees. A notable species is the [[small blue|small blue butterfly]], which is rare in the borough. Plants include the nationally scarce ivy broomrape, and [[kidney vetch]] and [[bird's-foot trefoil]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Devonshire Avenue Nature Area LNR |publisher=London Borough of Sutton |url=https://www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2399 |access-date=28 March 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019134833/https://www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2399 |archive-date=19 October 2013 }}</ref>
* [[Roundshaw Downs]] was in the 19th century an area of farmland, becoming in the first half of the twentieth [[Croydon Airport]].<ref name=Sutton>{{cite web|url=https://www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1827 |title=Roundshaw Downs LNR |publisher=London Borough of Sutton |access-date=17 March 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140413093958/https://www.sutton.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1827 |archive-date=13 April 2014 |df=dmy }}</ref> Most of the site is a mixture of chalk and neutral grassland, but there is also some woodland. Areas of unimproved chalk grassland have species typical of this habitat such as [[Briza media|common quaking grass]], [[wild carrot]] and [[Lotus corniculatus|bird's-foot-trefoil]]. A grassland flower species is [[Rhinanthus angustifolius|greater yellow rattle]], which is nationally protected, and Sutton and Croydon are its national strongholds.
* [[Ruffett and Big Woods]] on the edge of the borough near [[Woodmansterne]] are the largest continuous area of woodland in the borough. Ruffett Wood is mainly sycamore, with some ash and hazel. It also has some plant species indicative of ancient woodland, such as [[Hyacinthoides non-scripta|bluebells]]. Big Wood has even more sycamore, as well as two large oaks and a stand of [[Anemone nemorosa|wood anemone]]. The site also has numerous bird species.
* [[Spencer Road Wetlands]] has since 1991 been managed by the London Wildlife Trust. The site has reed swamps with wetland vegetation, woodland, a sedge-bed and a pond. Insects include the [[Archanara geminipuncta|twin-spotted wainscot]] and crescent moths, and there are birds such as grey heron, reed warbler and kingfishers.
* [[Sutton Ecology Centre Grounds]] is in [[Carshalton]] and owned by Sutton Council and managed by it and the Friends of Sutton Ecology Centre. Habitats include ponds, woodland, meadows, marshlands. There are also small demonstration gardens. In the south is the old course of the [[River Wandle]], which in now dry most of the time, but still has [[Iris pseudacorus|yellow flag iris]]. Margaret's Pool has a number of species of dragonfly and damselfly, and the trees surrounding it are sycamore and ash.
* [[The Spinney, Carshalton]], a small L-shaped reserve, is a mixture of woodland and scrub, with the main trees being plane and elm. Breeding birds include [[dunnock]]s, [[Eurasian wren|wrens]] and [[common blackbird|blackbirds]]. Other animals include wood boring beetles and foxes.
* [[Wandle Valley Wetland]] has open water and seasonal pools, scrub and wet woodland. There are frogs, toads and newts, together with [[brown hawker|brown hawker dragonflies]] and birds including blackcaps and wrens.
* [[Wilderness Island]], near Carshalton, is a {{convert|2.7|hectare|acre|adj=on}} island between two arms of the [[River Wandle]] and was once the site of a pleasure garden. It features a fish pond, woodland, and meadows. Trees include the [[black poplar]], and there are birds such as the woodpecker, kingfisher and grebe. There is a variety of butterflies including the [[speckled wood (butterfly)|speckled wood]] and [[holly blue]], and the rare [[hornet moth|hornet clearwing]] moth.

===Lavender fields===
There are two historic lavender fields in the borough: at Oaks Way, Carshalton Beeches is a non-profit community project that manages three acres of lavender. The other, a 25-acre commercial site in Croydon Lane called Mayfield, is popular with tourists. It is located just within the Carshalton South and Clockhouse ward within the London Borough of Sutton.<ref>[https://mapit.mysociety.org/area/8459.html Carshalton South and Clockhouse ward map]</ref> This area was once famous as the "Lavender Capital of the World". From the 18th to the early 20th centuries the North Downs of Surrey, with its chalky free-draining soil, ideal for lavender growing, were at the centre of worldwide production of lavender. It was a very prosperous part of the local agriculture. Blue fields could be seen all over Mitcham, Croydon, Wallington, Banstead, Carshalton and Sutton.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mayfieldlavender.com/lavender-revival/|title=Mayfield Lavender|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080530101538/http://www.mayfieldlavender.com/lavender-revival/|archive-date=30 May 2008|df=dmy-all}}</ref> The scale of the operation can be understood from the fact that the ''Daily News'' in 1914 was able to state:

{{cquote|At Carshalton Beeches in every direction the low hill sides of the farm beyond Beeches Halt are swept with the bloomy pastel tint of the lavender flowers.}}

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