For many centuries, perhaps dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, Low Scrubs was part of common woodland where anyone could collect fuel. Under the 1805 Enclosure Act, the present roughly 40 acre area was assigned to Ellesborough Parish for the poor of the parish to collect and take out wood fuel. Individual families were allotted their own compartments of trees. This usage continued until the Second World War. The National Trust bought Low Scrubs from the Ellesborough Charities in 1985.