Walking Around Woking 12th July

Thanks a lot to Keith for his walk with a theme last Sunday. We discovered that HG Wells accurately used the geography and road and rail network of Woking and Horsell as the setting for ‘The War of the Worlds’, and the novel describes junctions, canals and railways and bridges in the sites we can still see today.

We followed a route from the Martians landing site on Horsell Common to town and back, passing some landmark sites described in the book, and the Martian sculpture in the town centre. We also saw the restored 1st World War Muslim cemetery on the common, which has been transformed from an overgrown collapsing building into a beautiful restful garden with a lovely water feature. Inexplicably the entrance is boarded up!

We were joined by new walker Ian, a Horsell resident who used his local knowledge to add an interesting end to the route through woods and local paths back to the starting point.  The forecast was awful but thankfully it turned out to be perfect walking weather.