The Monument, beside the Windsor Road on the northern part of the Common was erected in 1901 on Queen Victoria's death to commemorate her visit in 1853 to review her troops. It was from Staple Hill, that Queen Victoria reviewed her assembled troops before their departure for the Crimean War.

The monument is surrounded by an earthwork which is shown on the 1873 OS map but in no detail.  Today it appears as a roughly rectangular area, enclosed within a deep ditch which has five causeway entrances.  The central area has several large earth mounds, the purpose of which is not clear.  The earthwork has never been properly surveyed: a rough GPS-based sketch is shown below.

It is generally assumed that it was dug for a gun emplacement as part of the exercises for the Great Camp of 1853.

For many years the nature of the earthwork was hidden by a dense thicket of gorse. The whole area around the monument, including the ditch, was cleared by the Surrey Wildlife Trust in November 2003 as their contribution to Chobham's 150th anniversary celebrations of the Great Camp.