Wildlife Circus

One of the ambitions of the 'Tolworth Treasure and the Hogsmill Hum' walks currated by Lucy Furlong and myself and featured on Radio 4's walking women was that you can enjoy walking anywhere but you may need a device to help you connect with the area. Walking along the busy Tolworth Broadway was particularly enjoyable when in the company of one of its former residents: Richard Jefferies. 'Richard Jefferies' along Tolworth Broadway The following short circular walk is around parts of what was NORBITON COMMON and was written in the context of a discreet period of time when Kingston Cemetery was locked (it has since reopened). Alexander Mitchelson, a market gardener who lived in NORBITON STREET - was the founder of the Kingston heritage apple - the 'Mitchelson's seedling'. He had 13 acres of  his allotments at NORBITON COMMON (an additional 15 acres were situated at Kingston hospital at the A308 junction). Tithe Map Starting at Kingston Road, y...

Conceived in 1854, Kingston Cemetery along Bonner Hill Road, Norbiton comprises 32 acres of parkland and was opened in 1855. Burials include Thomas Hansard recorder of Parliamentary debates, A.C. Ranyard editor of Truth magazine and Dr Joseph Moloney, an African explorer. The only bronze is the tomb of Dorothy Burton 1908 - a listed monument cast at her parents foundry in Thames Ditton. I love searching the council website for grave records For many years the cemetery was a special plot in the national Common Bird Census surveys convened by the British Trust for Ornithology. It was started by Duncan McNeil, and Surbiton and District Birdwatching Society, which I participated in during the 1980's and 90's; we have about twenty years of  good data for birds (and plants). If you put 'cemetery' into the search box at the top left corner several posts on the wax caps and roll rims; orange peel and honey fungus appear - but very little on it's trees  - and predicta...