IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Birch Grove, SHEPPERTON, TW17 8SR

The older road on the left leads to the railway station.

This bizarrely brief (overall) dual carriageway section is relatively long compared to the minor junction (Nursery Road) it allegedly might help and from an era when large motor vehicles lacked anything like normal acceleration especially up the slope. Ripe for a retrenchment like the plans for a dualled Walton Bridge on the same road, it is unlikely the councils will agree funds and maintenance to restore trees that dominated the site. But some re-greening is currently the zeitgeist in national news and comparable boroughs (Waltham Forest) so Spelthorne may see what used to be which locally is clearly beautiful. It also pre-dates the motorway.

A terrace of houses in a truncated section of Upper Halliford Road, now bypassed by a new section of the A244 on a flyover over the railway and M3 motorway. The bollarded section in the background leads to Upper Halliford station.

The rather busy A244 is quiet in May 2020. Even when busy trees and verges to both sides in this district help greatly with air and noise pollution. Compare and contrast still parts of the windmill road estate and final feeder roads to Heathrow where a broad surrounding of poured concrete was the order of the day and remains in place choking much life and potential pollution scrubbers.

The area was a few hundred metres north a target of Luftwaffe bombing in the early 1940s; British Thermostat changed and ramped up its factory, to produce bombs timed and altitude-triggered fuses. It is not known if Nazi intelligence knew the precise or general wartime output.

Well worth the pleasant walk from Ashford or Sunbury, darker part of the wood which as is shown is still well connected by branching footpaths and not as dark as many Surrey woods (especially those of the North Downs and Greensand Hills)

Kind-to-nature path in Halliford Park. Of the borough’s parks and indeed across the older, broader definition of Spelthorne, this is arguably the most wooded in percentage terms discounting Crane Park and possibly Bedfont Lakes and the odd little wooded park crammed between homes and e.g the several railways and motorways. (If counting the tree lined paths round the meadow and bramble verges to the grass pitch and the playground)

Little-kempt patch of the woodland showing how spectacular (showcasing dappled light from the canopy) back-growth and broad-leaf undergrowth are most of the year.

Many woods have a landmark great log such as this. A semi-natural feature, not only a host for insects, navigation aid, and scenic talking point but also a transient feature. In some decades another would normally be needed to remain put to replace it.