'I woke up in the night to my field ablaze'

A farmer has described feeling "absolutely gutted" following a blaze on land.

Steven Conisbee, who runs Barracks Farm in Fetcham, said he awoke on Friday at 22:00 to some loud bangs and then immediately after his son called to say the farm was on fire.

"I leapt out of bed, threw some clothes on, jumped in my pickup truck and headed down," he told the BBC.

"I thought the barn was on fire, but the sky was lit up orange."

Conisbee, a ninth-generation farmer, continued that he discovered his "best wheat field" was ablaze.

"The wind was blowing," he told the BBC.

"The noise which really took me by surprise and the speed with which the flames were engulfing [the field]."

"I really thought it was going to be a big problem".

"It was quite alarming."

Conisbee estimated that he had lost around £7,500 worth of wheat from the fire, which was eventually put out by firefighters and people on the farm.

"Farming's hard enough as it is - at the moment there is nothing in it.

"To grow an... actually promising crop [on a drought year] and then to watch it disappear before your eyes - I felt absolutely gutted.

He added he was "very, very" concerned about future fires happening again on his Surrey farm as the area is a "total tinderbox".

However, Conisbee continued: "As a farmer I'm an eternal optimist."

"We'll plough [the field], sow this autumn and go again."

It comes as fire services across the South East have warned people about the risk of wildfires.

Following a blaze at Ashdown Forest - which inspired the Winnie-the-Pooh series - East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service urged the public not to light fires and BBQs or drop cigarette butts.

There have been a number of wildfires on the South Downs this summer, including near Eastbourne and at Devil's Dyke in Sussex, alongside Chobham Common, Whitmoor Common and Brentmoor Heath in Surrey.

On Thursday, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service said it had contained another wildfire at Brentmoor Heath near Woking.

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