Molesey Matters

Or “Boules pitch” to you and me! The official opening of the Hurst Park Petanque Terrain was on Sunday, 31st March at the specially constructed pitch on Hurst riverside, just south of the Sadlers Ride car park.

Real Tennis, aka “The Sport of Kings”, was the original racquet sport and precursor to the modern game. Its popularity grew quickly among the French nobility.

The Crown Hotel stood on the corner of Church Street and High Street at the heart of Walton’s old commercial centre.

I recently started volunteering at Chandlers Field Primary School in West Molesey. The school motto is #yeswecan I spent last Monday morning writing ‘persuasive letters’ with a year 5 class.

Elmbridge Rentstart opened the borough’s first ‘Winter Hub drop-in’ service in Walton on 24 January 2019. The Hub is open to anyone who is homeless, vulnerably housed or sofa-surfing.

The custom of a meal being taken mid-afternoon was started in the early 19th century by Anna, 7th Duchess of Bedford. She was the wife of Francis Russell, and sister- in- law to the Prime Minister, John Russell.

Three Walton Manors are mentioned in the Domesday Book- Walton-on-Thames, Walton Leigh, and Apps, the latter being about one mile to the north-east of Walton on the road to Molesey.

British polar explorer Robert Falcon Scott and a team of four reach the South Pole, only to find that Amundsen has beaten them to it. (17th Jan 1912)

If you saw the John Lewis Christmas ad this year which featured Elton John, then you would have realised that not all of them were the genuine article. The ad started and ended with the real deal and for that cameo role Elton picked up a cool £5 million.

We turn the clock back to the 1890s. The film industry was in its infancy, with the Lumière brothers making the first public screening of ‘moving pictures’ in France in 1895. A young man called Cecil Hepworth was working in film processing, and he decided to set up his own film processing company.

Of all the significant country estates that once bordered the town of Walton, namely Ashley Park, Mount Felix, Apps Court, The Grove and Elm Grove, the only surviving estate mansion is the classical red-brick Georgian house still known as Elm Grove.

The artist’s Walton Bridges, an oil on canvas thought to have been painted in 1806, is at risk of leaving the UK unless a buyer can be found, after it was sold at auction in July for £3.4 million.