Horsell Common, Planes, Racing Cars and Spaceships

From the car park, stand with your back to the road and take the path directly opposite the vehicle entrance. Follow this path heading directly into the centre of the common and you will pass an information board on the left. Keep ahead on the main path ignoring any smaller paths to the left and right. Eventually you will come to a bench ahead and pass through the gap in the ridge alongside it to head down a small path into an open sandy clearing. From this clearing take the path heading diagonally right at 2 o'clock. Keep ahead and you will pass the open sand pits and lake to the left. Sand and gravel have been extracted from the common for many centuries. The author H. G. Wells, who lived in nearby Maybury, used this sandpit as the landing site for alien space craft in his novel, War of the Worlds. Today it is a site of pilgrimage for many science fiction fans that travel from all over the world. Keep in the same direction and you will reach a bench carved with the name Hanning Seat on the left.

Continue ahead in the same direction, passing the seat on the left. After just a short distance you'll come to a T-junction, keep left here. Follow the path bending left and keep ahead past a couple of disused tall wooden barriers. A short distance later you'll come to a crossroads with more staggered barriers ahead, turn right here. Originally Horsell Common was part of Windsor Great Park. Like most of the original park, it eventually passed into private ownership and by 1805 that owner was the Earl of Onslow. In 1900 the Earl began seeking a way of transferring the land into public ownership, but it wasn't until 1966 that the Horsell Common Preservation Society purchased the site at a price of £1 per acre. The Society still owns and manages the site today. The Common extends now to 855 acres and is a rich mosaic of heathland habitats, ranging from open heath and acidic grassland to bog, heathland pools, secondary woodland and scrub. It supports a variety of characteristic heathland plants and animals. Keep ahead on this straight path and you will pass alongside two vehicle barriers. Turn left immediately after the second barrier and follow the gravel drive with houses to the right. Keep ahead at the end of the houses on the stone track heading back into the common. At the next junction keep ahead passing a house to the left. A few paces later you'll come to the wooden posts and notice boards marking the entrance to McLaren Park.

Keep ahead on the obvious path through the park. You'll pass by some picnic benches on the left and a few paces later on the right you'll get your first view of the McLaren Technology Centre. The McLaren Technology Centre, opened in 2003, is the headquarters of the McLaren Group. It is a semi-circular glass-walled building, designed by the architect Norman Foster. With about 1,000 people based here, it is home to the McLaren Racing Formula One constructor as well as other companies of the McLaren Group. The building is accompanied by a series of artificial lakes one formal lake that completes the circle of the building, and a further four ecology lakes. The water from the lakes is pumped through a series of heat exchangers to cool the building and to dissipate the heat produced by the testing wind tunnels. Employee facilities include a restaurant, a juice and coffee bar, a swimming pool and a fitness centre. The building also houses an underground visitor and learning centre. Follow the path meandering ahead with the centre across to the right. Follow the path as it now swings right following the curve of the formal lake. As you draw level with the main building, fork left and cross a footbridge over the river and through a wooden gate. Follow the woodland footpath and as you emerge out of the trees you will reach the open grass area marking the start of Fairoaks Airport.

Keep straight ahead on the path passing the triangular aircraft warning sign and the windsock. Fairoaks Airport was opened in 1931 as a private airstrip. It was signed up for military use in 1936 becoming RAF Fairoaks during World War II, with 6,000 pilots trained here mostly in Tiger Moths. The airfield was auctioned off in 1967 and today is used as a maintenance airfield and also hosts many light aircraft. Enter the next section of woodland ahead. Follow this path, which becomes a track, all the way to the T-junction with the road. Turn left onto the grass verge alongside Chertsey Road. Cross over the main entrance road for the airport and continue on the grass verge. When you reach the chevron sign, turn left through the West Entrance gate marked as a public bridleway.

Follow the tarmac entrance road and as this bends left, keep ahead onto the bridleway with the fenced horse paddocks on the right. On the left you'll pass the parking area for the light aircraft and soon afterwards you will pass the end of the runway also on the left. Cross the footbridge and go through the gate. Keep ahead on the bridleway following the left edge of the field meandering through gorse bushes. At the far side of the field, pass through the gate and cross over the larger wooden footbridge. (You'll notice concrete steps at each end of the bridge carefully placed to help horse riders mount/dismount to use the bridge). Follow the stone bridleway and at the end of the long straight section bear left over a small stream with a private property ahead. This marks the re-entry point for Horsell Common.

30 yards before the house, bear right onto the bridleway marked with a blue arrow. Follow this path along the edge of the common close to the fence boundary on the right. You'll come to a major crossroads with vehicle tracks with a sign for Norwood Farm on the right turn left here and then immediately right onto a narrow mud footpath heading into the centre of the common. Keep following this main path ignoring minor paths to the left and right. When you come to a section with a small pond and gorse bushes ahead, swing right then left to continue on the main path. Eventually you will emerge to a T-junction with a wide straight forest track, turn left onto the track. Soon you'll pass by a small lake on the right. Take the first path on the right after it and, after just a few paces, fork left on the narrow path through the trees heading over the brow of a small hill. Follow this path with a steep bank down to the left, and at the next junction take the path at about 11 o'clock going over the brow of a small hill. Keep left at the fork and you will reach a bench on the left (the one you passed on your outward leg). Turn right to retrace your steps, straight along the main path, back to the car park.