Self-guided children's trail

Stop 1

Start by the slipway at the end of Sadlers Ride. Look across the river towards the Middlesex Bank. You can see the Astoria Houseboat which is a recording studios owned by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. To the left is a small octagonal brick temple dedicated to William Shakespeare by David Garrick, the eighteenth-century actor. The river island on your left is called Garrick’s Ait.

Activity

How many different kinds of birds, including waterfowl, can you spot? Can you name any of the species? (Hint: Canada geese, mallards, coots and moorhens are some of the residents).

Stop 2

Turn right onto the towpath. It is part of the Thames Path (https://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/en_GB/trails/thames-path/). The Thames Path is a long-distance walking trail that follows the River Thames for 185.2miles (298 km) from its source in the Cotswolds as far as Woolwich in southeast London. The towpath is also part of the National Cycle Network (https://www.sustrans.org.uk/national-cycle-network/). After a few metres on the right-hand side you will see a listening post for the Liquid History Elmbridge riverside trail (http://www.memoryscape.org.uk/liquidhistory/). It is a self-guided audio trail with five listening posts between Cigarette Island (behind Hampton Court Station) and here.

Activity

Sketch some of the tree leaves and wild flowers that you can see along the towpath. Smartphone users can try and identify some of the species that you see using Google Lens or other identification app.

Stop 3

Walk along the towpath until you notice an Environment Agency sign reminding anglers that they need to buy a fishing licence. A wooden bathing station was built near here with separate changing rooms for boys, girls, women and men. It opened in 1925. ‘Mac’, the superintendent, taught many Molesey children to swim. The bathing station burnt down in 1966.

Stop 4

Carry on walking along the towpath. Tagg’s Island is a private houseboat community on your left.

Activity

Look at the houseboats that you pass. Design your own houseboat. What would it look like from the outside? Produce a floor plan to show what rooms you would have on the inside.

Stop 5

Just before the towpath narrows, on your right you will see the Hurst Park wildlife area at the back of the cricket ground which is maintained by volunteers. The dead hedge is a habitat for small creatures. At the back of the wildlife area you will notice two sections of concrete wall. These are some remnants of the fencing that enclosed Hurst Park racecourse. Racing commenced in 1890 and the last race was in 1962. The stands and finishing line were up by the Hurst Park Tescos.

Stop 6

Between a gap in the houseboats on Taggs Island you will notice two sets of concrete steps. These were part of the garden of the hotel on the island built in 1913 and demolished in 1972. When it opened as a luxury hotel it was called the Karsino. Visitors could reach the hotel by ferry. Just before you reach Graburn Way and the entrance to the cricket ground you can make out the remains of the jetty jutting out into the water.

Stop 7

East Molesey Cricket Club moved here in the mid-1880s. Near the entrance to the cricket ground you will see a children’s playground. In front of it ‘The Eights Tree’ sculpture was erected in 2001 in memory of the writer R.C. Sherriff who was also a keen rower. Behind the memorial is the clubhouse of Molesey Boat Club. Their boats are stored on former tennis courts.

Stop 8

Turn right and walk along Graburn Way until you reach the gates which were part of the racecourse. The seven-furlong races used to start at the far end of Hurst Meadows Minor (on your left). The gates were used to close the road on race days. A plaque on the wall of one of the gateposts tells you more.

Activity

Look closely at the gates. Can you work out how the gates were positioned on race days to block the road and show the jockeys and their horses in which direction to go?

Stop 9

Walk towards the Hurst Road and turn right into Graburn Way car park. Take the right fork and exit the car park. In front of you, imagine the home straight of the racecourse. It requires an even bigger leap of the imagination to picture the settlements that were there from neolithic times to the early Saxon period.

In 1994, Wessex Archaeology excavated the area marked in red on the walk map. Photographs from the dig are on the Elmbridge Museum website. The remarkable discoveries include an Early Bronze Age ring-ditch and burial mound containing a collared urn and two cremated bodies of a woman and (possibly) a younger adult male (c. 3000 years ago). The faience beads found within the urn are special. A corn-drier (type of kiln) and eight cremation burials from early Romano-British times (c. 1800 years ago) suggest that this area was on the edge of an estate but no more is known than this. Eight Early Saxon sunken huts (c. 1500 years ago) were also excavated which suggests a population of 30-40 people. After that, the settlement appears to have been abandoned. It is possible that this was the site that gave Molesey its name. A charter of 672 identifies a landowner named Mul (pronounced as in ‘cool’). Mul was a common name for someone of mixed Celtic and Saxon parentage (A mule is a cross between a donkey and a horse). Why did the settlement end? We do not know, but it seems that East Molesey developed on higher ground around St. Mary’s in Late Saxon and Early Medieval times.

Stop 10

Follow the path heading in the general direction of the towpath and car park. You can cut across the meadows when the cars in Sadlers Ride car park come into view if you wish.

Activity

You have several activities you can choose from on your way back to the start. There’s a children’s playground, a basketball court, a pétanque court, outdoor gym equipment, a wooded play area, two wooden boats built by Weybridge M Shed and plenty of space for kicking a ball about.