IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Hockford Close, WOKING, GU24 0DB

This is the footbridge over Hodge Brook, just upstream of its confluence with Stanford Brook.

A driveway off the southern end of Hockford Close, an access road across the southern part of Bullswater Common near Pirbright.

The Hodge Brook looking towards the fields of Merrist Wood college.

A drain on the boggy land in the southwest corner of the site, with a footbridge carrying one of the paths.

According to the stone tablet in its parapet Bullswater Bridge was built in 1923 by Guildford Rural District Council to carry the B380 Guildford Road over Hodge Brook. This brook drains eastwards from Bullswater Common and is a tributary of Stanford Brook. Further information provided by landowner: The two streams are kept separate on the north side of the bridge by the brick built design itself. Therefore it is not a confluence at this point. The bridge design has the middle arch for an overflow channel as necessary. There was evidence of silt build up at the time the photograph was taken because there had been a massive village flood a year earlier and the land was still recovering. The silt visible on the photo bears no reflection on the normal situation pertaining to the years before and the years after.

The pond was constructed in 1990 and is a focal point in this local nature reserve, featuring a dipping platform. The photograph was taken very late in the afternoon of a day during a period of weather with continual clear skies resulting in cold nights and comparatively warm days for February. Despite the ambient temperature of around 8º Centigrade at the time, the pond had not unfrozen at all during the day.

Until 1989 this approximate 14 acre, or 6 hectare, site was a wasteland that was used for dumping. In 1989 it was bought by Guildford Borough Council and has since been turned into a community wildlife area by a partnership of the Council, local residents, the Surrey Wildlife Trust, and the Merrist Wood Campus of Guildford College. The partnership's website is here http://www.foxcornerwildlife.org.uk/

The junction of the B3032 Guildford Road with the B380 Ash road on the right as it approaches Fox Corner.

A large clump of blackthorn by one of the paths.

A tree precariously leaning over the Hodge Brook which separates the wildlife area from the fields of Merrist Wood college.