Heritage Trails

In the Footsteps of Joseph Fisher

Welcome to Bushy Park and our heritage trail, In the Footsteps of Joseph Fisher. This trail takes you on a short and gentle tour of the Pheasantry Garden, which was inspired by Joseph Fisher, the superintendent of Bushy Park after the Second World War.

Details

Start and Finish: Disabled Gate into Pheasantry Garden.
Length: 1 mile or 1.5km.
Duration: About 1 hour.
Accessibility of route: Flat level paths. No steps.
Hazards: Unfenced edges of ponds and streams.
Number of stops: 12.

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Stops are marked on the map with their number. Print the map to go with your Podcast.

Directions

To find the start - Stop 1: This is at the gate into the Pheasantry Gardens, near the small car park for disabled visitors. Make sure you are inside the gardens and you can see the trees and lawns in front of you. Stand with your back to the gate and the fence. If you’re in the right place, there will be a path in front of you. One branch goes straight ahead. The other branch goes of to your left.

Audio guide for Stop 1

To find Stop 2: Follow the main path heading off to your left for about two minutes until you see a large old tree about 20 yards away in the lawn on your right. There are two wooden posts propping up one of the branches.

Audio guide for Stop 2

To find Stop 3: Continue along the path as it turns to your right. Just before a wooden bridge, you’ll come to a large tree, which has branches hanging low over the path.

Audio guide for Stop 3

To find Stop 4: Continue along the path and cross the bridge over the stream. Turn right and follow the path on the other side. The stream should be on your right. Now look for some strange wooden stumps a few metres away on your side of the stream. This is Stop 4.

Audio guide for Stop 4

To find Stop 5: Continue along path, keeping the stream on your right. After a few minutes, a path joins from the right. On the left, you’ll see a bench. Next to the bench, there’s a group of grey-coloured pine trees. This is Stop 5.

Audio guide for Stop 5

To find Stop 6: Ignore the path that joins from the right and continue ahead along the main path. You’ll come to a bed of shrubs on your right next to the pond. Walk just past the shrubs onto the lawn and stand looking over the pond.

Audio guide for Stop 6

To find Stop 7: Rejoin the path where it splits in two. Take the left hand branch and walk to the area on your left which has shrubs and three tall trees. This bed has spring-flowering plants. Autumn-flowering plants are in the bed on the right of the path, a little further along.

Audio guide for Stop 7

To find Stop 8: Walk a few steps further along the path to a large dead tree on the right and a pile of logs to the left. This is Stop 8.

Audio guide for Stop 8

To find Stop 9: If you’ve left the path, return to it and continue in the same direction towards the end of the garden. In a few minutes, you’ll notice that the path rises slightly. Have a look over the fence here. This is a new feature of the garden. We’ve adapted Joseph Fisher’s idea of creating views by giving you a new view over the park. Keep following the path until just before it bends sharply to the right at the end of the garden. This is Stop 9.

Audio guide for Stop 9

To find Stop 10: Continue along the path, keeping the fence on your left. After a few minutes, the path curves sharply to the right again and there’s a short path to a gate on your left. Stop 10 is ahead of you at the junction.

Audio guide for Stop 10

To find Stop 11: Ignore the path to the gate on your left and follow the main path as it heads back to the other end of the garden. Continue for about two or three minutes until you come to a house on your left. This is Stop 11.

Audio guide for Stop 11

To find Stop 12: Continue along the path past Triss’s Pond on your left. At a junction, turn left. Cross a wooden bridge and follow the path towards a gate in the fence. Just before the gate, follow the path as it turns sharply to your right. You’ll eventually come to a small mound on the right of the path. Go up onto the mound.

Audio guide for Stop 12

To return to the start: From the mound, retrace your steps to the level path. Turn left and walk with the fence on your right until you come to the gate into the gardens.