Harewoods

Harewoods is a working Surrey estate pieced together by the Victorian London stockbroker Alfred Howard Lloyd, and it still makes up much of the countryside around Outwood. Footpaths and bridleways cross tenant farmland, meadows, woodland and Outwood Common, where commoners grazed animals and cut timber until the mid 1800s and many ancient oaks still stand; the village cricket club was formed there in 1889 on land Lloyd donated. More than 100 ponds dot the estate, from open water to marshes where snipe and woodcock turn up, and in spring Hornecourt Wood fills with primroses, wood anemones and bluebells. Reviewers warn that the paths get very muddy in wet weather, so pack wellies, and note that the free car park is small and reached along a bumpy track. There are no toilets. Well-controlled dogs are welcome, on a lead around grazing livestock. The Trust publishes three trail guides here, including a 2.5-mile Outwood Common circuit past a lily pond.