Molesey Matters

It is said that Bird Watching is very good for your mental health, not to mention getting fresh air and exercise. A recent Radio 4 programme said that it enables us to forget the troubles of the day and just enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. Cow Common is the perfect place to enjoy Bird Watching.

Following a revolt by the English nobility against his rule, King John put his royal seal on the Magna Carta, or “Great Charter” on the 15 June in 1215. The document, essentially a peace treaty between John and his barons, guaranteed that the king would respect feudal rights and privileges, uphold the freedom of the church, and maintain the nation’s laws.

Our own Molesey Regatta this year takes place over the weekend of July 21st and 22nd. Place a note in the diary, it’s a fantastic event.!

At a spacious 1,100 acres in area, Bushy Park is the second largest of the London Royal Parks. For many generations it has welcomed local visitors, and those from afar.

For nearly sixty years the Molesey Art Society has been the focus for artistic endeavour in the local area – indeed, they celebrate their diamond jubilee in 2019. The Society recently held their annual spring exhibition at St Alban’s Primary School in Beaulieu Road – an opportunity for visitors to see the work of many local artists.

Engineer, designer and inventor Sir Barnes Wallis spent almost four decades working at Brooklands, during which time his vision and contribution to engineering and aviation created a legacy which continues to make an impact on the world we live in today.

February 1814: King George III was on the throne, Tory Lord Liverpool was Prime Minister and the Napoleonic Wars would soon be over. It was also the third coldest winter since 1659, when the Central England Temperature (CET) records began. After weeks of bitter chill, blankets of fog and drifting snow, Londoners awoke on 1 February to find that the River Thames had ground to an icy halt.

A former hunting lodge of Henry VII is in danger of being pulled down. Hanworth Park House which comes under Hounslow borough, has stood empty for 25 years but was bought 3 years ago by Gary Cottle who wants to sell a part of the land off for housing and put the funds towards restoration of the lodge.

Acclaimed as a scientific and social prophet, Herbert George Wells was a prolific novelist famous primarily for science fiction but also for comic realism. After a brief apprenticeship to a draper, Wells became a student-teacher, eventually winning a scholarship to the Normal School of Science (later Imperial College) where his studies under the great zoologist T H Huxley inspired his science fiction writing.

Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was first published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. Telling the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an old miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come, the story has become a firm favourite all over the world.

This is a detail from the painting of Tanners Bridge, which hangs in Molesey Library. The caption of the painting reads ‘Bridge over the Mole 1905 by Arnold Helcke’. Tanners Bridge is the bridge across the Mole at the end of Spencer Road.